THE 


CLAIMS  OF  LABOE, 

AND 


THEIR  PRECEDENCE 

TO  THE 

CLAIMS  OF  FREE  TEADE. 


Br 


STEPHEN  COLWELL. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

C.  SHERMAN  &  SON,  PRINTERS. 


1861. 


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THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


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The  interests  of  that  immense  majority  of  men  who 
do  not  merely  labor  for  their  living,  but  whose  industry 
and  skill  produce  all  that  is  called  wealth,  all  the  ne¬ 
cessaries,  comforts,  luxuries,  and  ornaments  of  civilized 
life,  deserve  to  be  studied  directly  and  specially,  and  not 
merely  as  incidents  of  national  wealth.  No  system  of 
social  economy  can  be  trusted  which  suppresses  or  over¬ 
looks  the  duties  which  men  owe  to  their  fellow-men ; 
and  no  system  of  social  duties  can  for  a  moment  be 
compared  with  that  which  was  propounded  by  Him  who 
gave  the  commandment,  “  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thy¬ 
self!” 

If  the  instances  were  not  flagrant,  it  might  be  sup- 
posed  that  no  Christian  people  could  adopt  or  tolerate 
a  system  of  political  economy,  of  which  human  well-;:, 
being  was  not  at  least  the  avowed  object.  The  prevail¬ 
ing  systems,  however,  take  wealth  for  their  subject, 
and,  treating  it  under  the  special  topics  of  production, 
distribution,  and  consumption,  proceed  to  develop  it 
mainly  from  a  commercial  point  of  view.  The  produc¬ 
tion  of  wealth  is  its  appearance  in  the  channels  of  com¬ 
merce  ;  that  is  supply :  its  distribution  is  commerce ; 
its  consumption  is  movement  to  the  consumers;  that  is 
demand. 


4 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


In  fact,  however,  the  producers  and  consumers  are 
substantially  the  same.  In  a  state  of  advanced  civili¬ 
zation,  the  extreme  division  of  labor  makes  it  necessary 
to  institute  a  system  of  exchange  of  products,  which  in¬ 
volves  that  complicated  movement  for  the  assortment  of 
products  which  is  called  trade  ;  an  agency  which  is  not 
designed  to  promote  the  interests  of  that  class  of  men 
called  merchants,  but  to  promote  the  comfort  and  well¬ 
being  of  all  classes  of  society,  especially  that  largest 
class,  of  which  those  who  labor  for  a  living  are  the 
members.  This  is  the  class  which  furnishes  the  pro¬ 
ducers  and  the  chief  part  of  the  consumers.  The 
point  of  view,  then,  from  which  to  regard  social  indus¬ 
try,  is  not  trade,  but  labor  and  social  well-being.  Trade 
is  but  one  of  the  branches  of  this  industry,  a  depart¬ 
ment  which  becomes  more  important  as  civilization  ad¬ 
vances,  but  can  never  be  otherwise  than  subordinate  to 
the  interests  of  the  great  body  of  producers  and  con¬ 
sumers.  Merchants  form  a  necessary  class,  but  their 
private  interests  prompt  them  to  make  the  largest  pro¬ 
fits  possible  out  of  their  agency.  It  is  therefore  assum¬ 
ing  a  false  position  to  study  the  interests  of  those  who 
produce  by  the  light  furnished  by  those  who  merely 
assort  and  distribute  the  commodities  of  industry. 

Great  armies  are  fed  and  clothed  and  all  their  wants 
supplied  by  the  agencies  of  officers  who  receive  a  yearly 
salary  for  their  services,  and  whose  duty  is  to  supply 
the  place  of  merchants  in  civil  life  to  soldiers  engaged 
in  duties  which  preclude  them  from  attending  to  the 
purchase  of  their  own  clothing,  or  the  providing  for 
their  own  food.  This  is  by  far  more  economical  for  the 
soldier  and  the  government  than  if  this  were  left  to  the 
full  action  of  a  class  of  merchants,  whose  profits  would 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


5 


far  exceed  the  salaries  of  the  commissariat  of  an  army. 
As  it  would  be  of  no  advantage  to  an  army  merely  to 
increase  the  salaries  of  these  commissaries ;  so  it  is  no 
advantage  to  a  community  in  civil  life  that  the  mer¬ 
chants  by  which  it  is  served  grow  rich. 

The  real  object  to  be  sought  in  both  cases  is  the 
larger  and  better  supply  of  those  articles  which  go  to 
increase  the  comfort,  health,  and  strength  of  consumers, 
whether  soldiers  or  citizens ;  and,  of  course,  in  order 
to  the  increase  of  supplies,  the  attention  must  be  chiefly^ 
directed  to  the  laborers,  by  whose  skill  and  industry  the 
products  of  annual  consumption  are  furnished ;  not  for¬ 
getting  for  a  moment  that  those  laborers  are  not  only 
the  chief  producers  but  the  chief  consumers.  The 
great  social  problem  is  not  merely  the  largest  produc¬ 
tion,  nor  the  freedom  of  the  distribution,  but  that  the 
laborers  shall  be  enabled  to  enjoy  adequately  the  fruits 
of  their  own  industry. 

We  trust  it  will  be  a  relief  for  the  real  friends  of 
humanity  to  turn  from  the  pages  which  treat  of  the 
production,  distribution,  and  consumption  of  riches,  to 
some  considerations  upon  the  welfare  of  the  man  who 
labors.  Not  that  we  intend  to  propound  here  any  sys 
tern,  or  to  attempt  more  than  to  point  out  the  claims 
of  laborers  and  insist  upon  their  being  considered. 
When  such  considerations  and  inquiries  are  allowed 
due  weight,  and  are  carried  to  their  proper  conclusions 
under  the  light  of  Christianity,  a  system  of  social  eco¬ 
nomy  will  be  developed,  which  must  do  more  to  quicken 
the  movements  of  industry  and  till  the  channels  of 
commerce  than  all  the  theories  of  wealth,  or  money,  or 
commerce,  or  political  economy,  which  have  yet  been 
announced. 


6 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


The  claims  of  labor !  AVhat  a  fruitful  text !  When 
we  behold  the  mighty  results  of  labor  in  agriculture,  in 
manufacture,  in  the  arts,  in  commerce,  it  is  but  just  and 
natural  to  inquire  where  are  they  who  have  achieved 
all  this  1  What  is  their  condition,  and  what  their  pros¬ 
pects  ]  Are  they  receiving,  or  have  they  received,  a 
just  remuneration  for  all  this  labor  1  Are  they  enjoy¬ 
ing  the  reward  of  all  they  have  done  ]  Are  they  worn 
down  with  toil,  or  are  they,  with  due  mingling  of  rest 
and  refreshment,  the  most  cheerful,  the  most  healthful, 
and  the  most  grateful  of  God’s  creatures  1  It  denotes 
a  deadness  to  human  interests  wholly  inexcusable  to 
look  upon  the  marvels  of  industry,  and  not  give  one 
kind  or  anxious  thought  to  the  condition  of  those  whose 
bread  depends  day  by  day  upon  the  progress  of 
works  which  so  justly  command  the  wonder  of  the 
spectator.  But,  in  truth,  we  should  not  need  any  spec¬ 
tacle  of  the  results  of  human  industry  to  excite  us  to  a 
full  consideration  of  the  claims  of  the  laborer.  Man  is 
I  wisely  and  mercifully  appointed  to  eat  his  bread  in  the 
sweat  of  his  brow. 

We  say  mercifully,  because  the  highest  condition  of 
the  laboring  man  is  the  highest  state  of  earthly  happi¬ 
ness.  Laborers  whose  physical  powers  are  not  unduly 
taxed,  whose  minds  are  properly  cultivated,  and  whose 
labors  are  duly  requited,  are  the  happiest  men  of  this 
world ;  seldom  repining  at  their  lot  as  they  eat  that  food 
to  which  toil  gives  a  relish  the  relaxed  idler  never  feels. 
They  escrjpe  a  thousand  ills  and  causes  of  discontent 
to  which  a  life  of  opulence  or  even  partial  idleness  is 
exposed.  If  the  mass  of  laborers  in  the  world  do  not 
enjoy  the  happiness  and  comfort  which  is  due  to  their 
position  and  their  services,  it  is  because  men  have 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


7 


changed  and  perverted  the  appointment  of  God.  The 
laborer,  in  too  many  instances  now,  does  not  eat  his 
bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow ;  he  labors,  but  the 
avails  come  not  to  him ;  he  toils  far  beyond  the  point 
of  earning  his  bread,  but  another  mainly  enjoys  the 
benefits.  His  bread  is  too  scant  for  the  requirements 
of  nature  ;  his  labor  is  too  hard  for  the  powers  of  na¬ 
ture.  This  is  no  part  of  the  sentence,  “  In  the  sweat 
of  thy  face  thou  shalt  eat  bread,  until  thou  return  to 
the  ground.”  It  is  man’s  perversion  of  God’s  appoint¬ 
ment. 

The  claims  of  labor  demand,  then,  earnest  considera¬ 
tion.  No  subject  which  concerns  social  interests  claims 
more  conscientious  and  enlightened  investigation.  La¬ 
bor  is  the  power  which  rears  the  dwellings  in  which 
we  live,  the  temples  in  which  we  worship,  and  every 
other  triumph  of  architecture ;  which  produces  that  in¬ 
finite  variety  of  food  and  raiment,  of  luxuries  and  ne¬ 
cessaries,  in  which  we  revel;  which  achieves  all  the 
wonder  of  art  and  mechanism;  which  builds  all  the 
mighty  fabrics  which  float  upon  river  and  sea ;  which 
accomplishes  all  those  vast  works  of  canal  and  railway, 
daily  bringing  the  various  portions  of  the  human  family 
into  closer  proximity,  and  strengthening  the  feeling  of 
human  brotherhood ;  and  indeed  all  that  the  eye  be¬ 
holds  distinguishing  civilized  from  savage  life  comes 
from  the  hands  of  labor. 

Striking  however  as  all  these  achievements  of  labor 
are,  they  fall  far  short  of  a  full  exhibition.  Few  per¬ 
sons  whose  attention  has  not  specially  been  directed 
to  the  subject  can  make  even  a  tolerable  approximation 
of  the  quantity  of  labor  required  for  the  production  of 
their  own  food,  and  the  furnishing  of  their  own  raiment, 


8 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


of  their  furniture,  of  their  books,  and  the  numberless  1 
items  of  expenditure  in  which  their  families  annually 
indulge.  Who  that  beholds  our  whole  avenues  of 
warehouses,  stored  with  commodities  from  every  part 
of  the  world,  can  conjecture  the  quantity  of  human 
labor  required  to  till  depositories  so  numerous,  and  so 
vast  1  Who  can  conj  ecture  the  infinity  of  implements 
and  machinery  which  were  employed  in  the  production 
of  all  these  commodities,  and  the  labor  it  required  to 
construct  and  use  them  1  But,  what  is  far  more  interest¬ 
ing  to  know,  who  can  tell  what  labors  of  the  body  and 
the  mind,  what  exertions  of  human  strength,  what 
efforts  of  human  limbs,  what  practice  and  skilful  mo¬ 
tions  of  the  arm  and  hand,  and  what  movements  of  human 
fingers,  all  directed  by  human  intelligence  and  by  the 
organs  of  the  human  senses,  go  to  the  filling  the  maga¬ 
zines  of  commerce  and  art  1  It  is  evident  upon  a  slight 
examination  that  the  quantity  of  human  labor,  the 
actual  toil,  the  daily  and  annual  expenditure  of  human 
exertion  which  is  employed  in  this  vast  production, 
yearly  repeated,  is  far  beyond  our  computation.  We 
can  only  say  it  is  all  the  work  of  human  beings  under 
sentence  of  labor.  And  as  we  cannot  compute  the  labor, 
nor  ascertain  the  condition  of  the  laborers  by  simply 
regarding  the  work  they  have  done,  we  are  compelled, 
in  considering  the  claims  of  labor,  to  turn  to  the  laborers 
themselves,  wherever  they  are  scattered  over  the  face  of 
the  earth,  to  discover  their  actual  position  and  prospects. 
We  can  find  the  woman  who  toils  day  by  day  in  the 
yearly  work  of  her  needle,  though  we  can  never  see  nor 
trace  the  garments  which  yearly  leave  her  hands.  In 
the  consideration  of  questions  and  topics  touching  the 
higher  human  interests,  and  especially  those  wdiich  con- 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


9 


cern  the  multitudes  who  actually  produce  the  commodi¬ 
ties  of  the  world,  we  must  carry  our  own  inquiries  among, 
them  and  not  merely  among  their  productions ;  we  must 
look  at  the  laborers,  young  and  old,  male  and  female,  at 
their  work  and  in  their  dwellings.  If  we  would  do  them 
good,  we  must  thoroughly  comprehend  their  condition, 
moral,  civil,  and  social,  and  the  influences  which  combine 
to  produce  that  condition.  It  is  not  a  mere  question  of 
commerce  nor  of  industrial  production  which  comes 
before  us  when  we  would  consider  the  claims  of  labor  ; 
it  is  a  question  of  human  rights,  human  interests,  of 
human  welfare,  which  demands  our  attention.  Com¬ 
merce  and  industry  may  make  their  proudest  exhibi¬ 
tions  and  astonish  beholders  with  the  wonders  of  human 
effort,  whilst  the  masses  who  contributed  the  work  of 
their  hands  to  swell  this  display,  may  be  suffering  the 
very  extremities  of  human  woe.  The  claims  of  labor, 
then,  the  great  social  question  not  only  of  our  day,  but 
of  all  time  to  come,  must  be  solved  as  a  question  of 
human  well-being,  not  as  a  question  of  trade,  or  of  in¬ 
dustrial  production,  or  of  political  economy.  It  need 
not  be  feared  that  anything  desirable,  or  honorable,  or 
grand  in  commerce,  or  vast  in  production,  or  of  real 
value  to  the  human  family,  can  suffer  or  be  lost  by  im¬ 
proving  the  condition  of  those  on  whom  all  production 
and  all  commerce  depends.  The  laborers  who  are 
better  fed,  more  comfortably  clad  and  lodged,  more 
suitably  and  fully  educated,  whose  moral  or  religious 
training  has  been  more  amply  and  carefully  attended 
to,  will  certainly  be  none  the  less  efficient  in  their  in¬ 
dustry,  and  their  contributions  to  the  mass  of  com- 

« 

modities  in  trade  will  be  none  the  less  abundant.  It  is 
altogether  more  safe,  then,  as  well  as  more  philo- 


10 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


%  sopliical  and  humane  to  promote  the  progress  of  industry 
!  and  production,  by  increasing  the  comforts,  the  health, 

I  strength,  intelligence,  and  general  Avelfare  of  laborers, 
than  by  the  indirect  method  of  stimulating  and  en¬ 
couraging  commerce  as  a  business  or  a  profession.  We 
need  scarcely  add,  that  regarded  from  the  side  of 
Christianity,  there  is  no  admissible  mode  of  considering 
the  subject  but  that  which  places  human  welfare  as 
the  chief  corner-stone  of  every  industrial  edifice  and 
the  main  element  of  all  commercial  prosperity. 

There  is  another  aspect  in  which  the  claims  of  labor 
are  strikingly  important.  Labor  earns,  year  by  year, 
the  entire  income  of  a  nation ;  not  merely  the  public 
revenue  out  of  which  the  whole  expenditure  of  the 
nation  is  borne,  but  the  private  income,  be  the  same 
more  or  less,  of  every  individual  who  has  other  means 
of  living  than  his  own  labor.  The  whole  expense  of 
I  political  institutions,  and  national  as  well  as  sectional 
^administration,  is  sustained  by  the  annual  labor  of  the 
masses.  This  affords,  however,  but  an  inadequate 
notion  of  the  earnings  of  labor,  for  a  true  comprehen¬ 
sion  of  which  resort  must  be  had  to  the  gross  products 
of  national  industry,  rather  than  to  the  net  proceeds  of 
which  public  and  private  incomes  mainly  consist. 

The  entire  annual  product  of  labor  in  the  United 
States  is  variously  estimated  at  from  $3,000,000,000  to 
$3,500,000,000  ;  it  may  be  safely  taken  at  over  $3,000- 
000,000,  which  gives  for  our  present  population  one 
hundred  dollars  for  each  individual.  This  is  be¬ 
lieved  to  be  very  near  the  actual  annual  consumption 
of  our  population.  One-half  of  this  consumption  is  of 
food,  the  other  of  raiment,  furniture,  and  other  necessa¬ 
ries.  Of  this  vast  expenditure,  about  ninety  dollars  is 
expended  for  the  products  of  domestic  industry,  and 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


11 


ten  dollars  for  foreign  products  by  each  individual,  and 
taking  the  average  of  our  whole  population.  Domestic 
industry,  however,  supplies  the  commodities  which  we 
export,  to  pay  for  the  foreign  articles  we  import,  so 
that  our  own  laborers  furnish  directly  ninety  per  cent, 
of  our  whole  consumption,  and  indirectly  the  other  ten 
per  cent.  Our  country  is,  therefore,  a  vast  area  of  in¬ 
dustry,  in  which  the  people  are  engaged  in  ministering 
to  each  other’s  wants  and  desires.  The  largest  portion 
are  engaged  in  agriculture,  which  furnishes  food  to  all ; 
nearly  all  the  rest  are  employed  in  the  various  branches 
of  mechanical  and  manufacturing  industry,  which  fur¬ 
nish  raiment,  furniture,  and  lodging  for  all ;  the  re¬ 
mainder,  a  comparatively  small  number,  are  engaged 
in  the  business  of  trade,  domestic  and  foreign,  thereby 
distributing  for  consumption  the  products  of  industry, 
and  in  professional  and  political  life, — the  labor  of  this 
smaller  number  being  essential  to  organized  society 
and  civilized  life.  In  our  country,  then,  as  in  all  others, 
the  population  consists  mainly  of  laborers  in  the  soil  ^ 
and  in  the  shop  or  manufactory. 

The  men  of  trade,  and  politics,  and  professional  life 
occupy  the  largest  space  in  the  eye  of  the  casual  ob¬ 
server,  but  dwindle  into  insignificance  in  point  of  num¬ 
bers  when  compared  with  the  others.  Our  view  of 
labor  and  of  laborers  should  cover  the  whole  field  of 
industry,  and  should  include  all  its  occupants.  Labor 
is  the  basis  of  social  life;  the  welfare  of  the  laborer  ^ 
should  be,  therefore,  a  main  object  of  social  policy.  To 
make  this  policy  complete,  it  includes  the  labor  of  the 
mind  as  well  as  of  the  body,  and  also  that  division  of 
employment  and  of  labor  which  conduces  to  skill  and 
increased  production.  It  is  from  a  view  of  these  labo- 


I 


12  THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR, 

rers  as  a  whole,  that  we  must  derive  the  policy  which 
will  best  conduce  to  the  social  happiness  of  the  whole. 
We  cannot  determine  what  will  most  promote  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  those  engaged  in  trade  by  that  which  best  suits 
the  men  of  professional  life.  We  cannot  determine  the 
best  interests  of  agriculturists  by  consulting  singly  the 
wishes  of  the  manufacturers ;  nor  can  we  ascertain  or 
promote- the  interests  or  welfare  of  the  whole  mass  by 
consulting  the  men  of  trade  and  the  interests  of  com¬ 
merce.  Each  department  has  its  separate  interests  and 
its  selfish  views.  There  is  a  policy,  however,  which  is 
>^best  for  the  whole,  and  that  can  neither  be  ascertained 
nor  adjusted,  but  by  giving  that  consideration  to  each 
class  which  belongs  to  the  magnitude  of  its  numbers, 
its  peculiar  position,  and  its  special  employment. 

The  eye  of  the  Christian,  of  the  statesman,  of  the 
legislator,  of  the  philanthropist,  should  embrace  the 
whole  field  of  diversified  labor,  without  losing  sight  of 
the  various  parts  ;  the  head  should  not  forget  nor  neglect 
the  feet,  nor  should  the  body  discard  the  hands.  All  the 
members  should  abide  together  in  peace  and  mutual 
confidence  under  their  appointed  guidance.  The  go¬ 
vernment  of  the  whole,  instituted  for  the  good  of  the 
whole,  is  necessarily  confined  to  the  special  nation  or 
population  under  its  direct  supervision.  There  are 
principles  which  apply  to  the  labor  and  the  laborers  of 
the  whole  world,  but  as  the  laws  of  each  nation  operate 
only  within  its  bouildaries,  and  as  the  rulers  of  each 
nation  can  only  enforce  their  policy  within  these  limits, 
the  main  object  of  government  and  social  policy  must 
be  the  *  care  of  labor  and  laborers  in  the  circle  within 
which  special  authority  ia  effectual. 

The  authorities  of  each  separate  country  having,  to 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


13 


the  extent  of  their  wisdom  and  abilities,  provided  for 
the  special  welfare  of  their  own  people,  may  then,  in 
conjunction  with  the  rulers  of  other  nations,  inquire 
what  the  separate  governments  may  effect  for  the  good 
of  the  family  of  nations.  The  inquiry  must  constantly 
ascend  from  particular  nations  to  nations  collectively. 
If  the  several  nations  of  the' world  are  well  governed 
and  happy,  they  will  be  quite  ready  to  promote  the 
happiness  of  the  whole,  as  an  additional. means  of  in¬ 
creasing  their  own. 

It  is  very  obvious  that  the  scene  of  labor  which  every 
industrious  community  presents,  should  be  fully  covered 
by  the  shield  of  law  and  social  order.  Civilization 
cannot  exist  where  industry  is  exposed  to  the  attacks 
of  all  who  prefer  a  life  of  violence  or  .fraud  to  one  of 
useful  labor.  Men  must  be  protected  from  each  other  ; 
the  various  classes  must  also  be  protected  from  each 
other,  and  the  whole  must  be  subjected  to  such  restraints 
as  may  be  needful  for  the  interests  of  all.  Unre¬ 
strained  liberty  of  action  in  what  respects  the  progress 
of  industry  and  the  interchange  of  commodities,  is  no 
more  safe  nor  wise  than  unrestrained  liberty  of  action 
in  reference  to  men’s  persons.  It  is  as  essential  to  a 
happy  social  system  and  a  sound  civilization  that  men 
should  not  defraud  nor  oppress  each  other  in  what  con¬ 
cerns  their  property  and  the  due  compensation  of  their 
labor  as  in  what  concerns  immunity  of  their  persons. 
It  is  even  more  necessary  to  guard  men’s  property  and 
labor  than  their  persons,  for  selfishness  is  a  more  uni¬ 
versal  and  powerful  motive  than  those  which  lead  to 
attacks  upon  the  persons  of  men.  The  mass  of  men 
suffer  a  hundred  fold  more  injury  from  the  selfishness 
of  their  fellow-men  than  they  do  from  all  other  causes 


14 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


combined.  Whilst,  therefore,  the  laws  in  their  frame 
and  administration  should  carefully  protect  the  person 
of  the  laborer,  they  should  no  less  sedulously  have  re¬ 
spect  to  the  labor,  to  the  occupation,  to  the  compensa¬ 
tion,  and  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  class  of  laborers, 
as  being  the  most  important  and  most  numerous  class 
in  every  nation.  This  duty  of  every  government  must 
'by  its  very  nature  be  special.  No  general  law  nor  sys¬ 
tem  can  possibly  suit  for  all  nations.  The  diversities 
of  people  in  their  habits,  industry,  knowledge,  aptness 
for  invention,  or  execution,  their  actual  condition,  make 
it  absolutely  necessary  that  each  nation  should  be  go¬ 
verned  according  to  its  special  circumstances,  and  with 
a  view  to  its  special  welfare.  The  duty  of  watching 
over  the  interests  of  men  who  labor  is  therefore  not 
only  undoubted,  but  it  should  be  faithfully  performed 
in  each  separate  nationality  with  reference  to  its  peo¬ 
ple  as  the  only  means  of  fulfilling  efficiently  the  most 
important  end  of  social  organization.  If  the  produc¬ 
tions  of  industry  were  of  more  importance  than  the 
men  who  produce  them,  there  might  be  some  excuse  for 
overlooking  the  laborer  in  our  zeal  to  promote  produc¬ 
tion.  The  wisest  policy,  however,  even  in  that  view, 
would  be  to  promote  production  by  promoting  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  the  producer,  rather  than  by  aiming  at  produc¬ 
tion  as. the  chief  object. 

In  surveying  the  field  of  industry,  one  of  the  first 
features  which  strikes  our  eyes  is  the  real  and  apparent 
conflict  of  interest.  Each  individual  and  each  class 

the  avails  of  industry  than  they  give.  The  professional 
man  is  disposed  to  place  his  daily  labor  or  professional 
services  at  the  highest  rate  he  can.  The  officials  of 


are  interested  to  draw  from  others  a  larger  portion  of 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


15 


government  constantly  struggle  to  put  their  salaries  and 
fees  at  the  highest  point  attainable.  The  capitalist 
strives  to  obtain  a  high  rate  for  his  capital.  Men  ot 
skill  and  men  of  enterprise  and  large  undertakings 
exert  themselves  to  the  same  end ;  and  the  men  of 
daily  labor,  on  whom  all  the  rest  mainly  depend,  as  con¬ 
stantly  strive,  though  too  frequently  the  prey  of  others, 
to  secure  the  largest  possible  compensation  for  their 
toil.  This  seems  to  present  a  scene  in  which  selfish¬ 
ness  must  reign  supreme.  And,  in  point  of  fact,  its 
reign  is  under  far  less  control  than  it  should  be ;  its 
victims  in  the  best  governed  states  are  a  host.  To  a 
certain  extent,  however,  this  selfishness  and  the  spirit 
of  competition  which  it  generates  may  be  needful  as  a 
stimulus  to  exertion,  but  when  permitted  too  much  con¬ 
trol  it  is  the  bane  of  humanity,  and  one  of  the  w^orst 
enemies  of  general  welfare. 

There  is  a  point  of  justice  among  all  these  conflict¬ 
ing  interests  which  it  may  be  impossible  strictly  to  de¬ 
fine,  or  by  any  legislation  to  secure;  but  it  may  be  ap-'^ 
proximated  in  both  respects  by  a  wise  public  adminis¬ 
tration.  The  exact  adjustment  of  what  is  due  from 
man  to  man  in  all  that  relates  to  mutual  kindness  and 
forbearance,  belongs  as  well  to  the  domain  of  mora¬ 
lity  and  Christianity  as  to  that  of  government.  Public 
authority  may,  however,  go  far  under  the  guidance  of 
Christian  principles  to  attain  the  great  object  of  giving 
industry  its  utmost  development  by  merely  promoting 
the  welfare  of  laborers. 

In  a  scene  of  industry  like  that  to  which  we  refer, 
where  there  are  so  many  parties,  each  attentive  to  their 
own  interests,  there  must  of  course  be  some  tendency 
in  the  struggle  to  adjust  itself  at  the  right  place,  as 


16 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


each  individual  and  each  class  in  claiming  what  they 
conceive  to  be  due  to  them  as  against  others,  is  met  by 
the  very  party  against  which  the  claim  is  made ;  and, 
of  course,  in  a  community  where  any  sense  of  mutual 
justice  or  any  control  of  Christianity  prevailed,  there 
would  be  found  such  a  spirit  of  concession  as  must  ad¬ 
just  many  differences  as  nearly  at  the  right  point  as  is 
attainable.  If  each  individual  and  each  class  were  able 
to  persevere  equally  in  the  assertion  of  their  respective  ' 
rights,  the  point  of  compromise  would  soon  be  found 
for  all ;  but  that  is  never  the  case.  Many  do  not  un¬ 
derstand  their  own  rights  ;  some  have  little  opportunity 
of  insisting  on  them,  and  some  have  little  capacity  for 
the  vindication  of  their  interests,  whilst  many  of  supe¬ 
rior  opportunities  and  advantages  in  all  these  respects 
soon  attain  a  superiority  of  position  and  power  which 
rapidly  places  them  far  in  advance  of  their  less  favored 
fellow-laborers.  This  tendency  to  inequality  is  una¬ 
voidable  ;  it  belongs  to  the  very  constitution  of  our  race, 
in  which  inequality  reigns  in  classes  and  individuals, 
from  infancy  to  age,  in  mind  and  body.  It  is  plain  from 
this  that  our  Creator,  if  He  intended  that  peace  and 
justice  should  prevail  among  men,  did  not  place  it  upon 
the  foundation  of  force  or  of  mind  or  of  mere  human 
interests,  all  of  which  would  tend  to  violence  and  dis¬ 
union  or  fraud. 

His  plan  is  made  known  to  us  in  Hevelation.  He 
has  planted  in  men  all  the  energies  needful  to  a  grand 
development  of  human  prosperity,  and  He  has  given 
the  law  of  love  to  soften,  control,  and  modify  these 
selfish  energies  and  passions  which  incite  men  to  ac¬ 
tivity.  Christianity,  therefore,  casts  over  the  whole 
field  of  human  labor  its  benign  regards ;  all  classes  of 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


17 


the  human  hxmily  are  alike  the  objects  of  its  care.  The 
law  of  kindness  and  love  under  which  men  are  thus 
placed  is  sufficient  for  every  human  emergency ;  there 
can  be  no  oppression,  no  undue  advantage  taken  of 
weakness  nor  of  ignorance,  where  a  due  regard  for  this 
law  is  entertained. 

It  is  surely  incumbent,  then,  upon  all  intelligent  and 
induential  Christians,  and  especially  upon  all  the  minis¬ 
ters  of  Christ,  to  examine  and  understand,  as  far  as 
practicable,  the  applications  of  Christianity  to  this 
greatest  of  men’s  interests  in  this  world, — the  interests 
of  labor,  the  mutual  claims  and  relations  of  laborers. 
There  is  no  safe  nor  final  solution  of  the  innumerable 
questions  which  arise  in  the  great  arena  of  industry 
but  that  which  is  found  in  Christianity. 

No  other  doctrine,  no  other  philosophy  can  reach  the 
depths  of  the  subject.  Inequalities  of  mind,  of  body, 
of  physical  strength,  and  activity,  as  well  as  the  events 
of  human  life  and  the  course  of  nature,  all  conspire  to 
produce  inequalities  of  wealth  among  men.  Such  in¬ 
equalities  being  unavoidable  are  like  the  dissimilarities 
in  the  external  appearance  of  men,  undoubtedly  in  the 
order  of  God’s  providence.  The  correction  of  this  un¬ 
equal  distribution  which  arises  from  causes  which  can¬ 
not  be  changed,  nor  wholly  controlled,  is  left  to  Chris¬ 
tianity,  acting  upon  human  wisdom,  and  directing 
human  affections,  and  shaping  human  institutions. 
Men  variously  endowed  accumulate  unequally,  but 
having  added  field  to  field  and  heaped  up  treasures  far 
beyond  those  by  whom  they  are  surrounded,  these 
favored  sons  of  fortune,  as  they  are  sometimes  called, 
come  under  responsibilities  proportioned  to  their  ac¬ 
quisitions,  and  which  they  cannot  avoid.  The  relations 

2 


18 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOE. 


created  by  riches  and  poverty  and  by  the  unequal  natu¬ 
ral  endowments  of  men  are  provided  for  in  the  Christian 
system  by  the  duties  of  charity,  mercy,  protection,  ad¬ 
vice,  and  brotherly  kindness,  and  the  continual  inter¬ 
change  of  good  offices.  The  man  of  business  may 
enlarge  his  possessions,  but  in  so  doing  he  becomes  the 
more  specially  a  steward  of  Him  who  permits  this  un¬ 
equal  distribution  of  wealth,  and  as  such  bound  to 
employ  his  riches  in  the  best  manner  he  can  for  the 
wxdfare  of  his  fellow-men.  He  that  is  rich,  or  wise,  or 
powerful,  or  intelligent,  having  received  these  advan¬ 
tages  from  the  Great  Giver  of  every  good  gift,  is  bound 
to  make  the  best  use  of  the  talents  thus  committed  to 
his  charge.  There  rests,  therefore,  upon  all  who  are 
able  to  render  any  useful  service  to  their  fellow-men,  a 
religious  duty  in  this  respect  to  be  discharged  to  the 
utmost  of  their  ability.  To  this  obligation  we  appeal 
for  the  benefit  of  all  who  live  by  their  labor  and  espe¬ 
cially  of  those  who,  not  being  able  to  retain  the  whole 
avails  of  their  labor,  live  upon  the  wages  of  labor.  But 
this  appeal  is  not  only  made  to  all  employers  as  to  a 
question  of  wages  between  them  and  their  laborers,  it 
is  made  to  all  men  of  power,  wealth,  wisdom,  and  in¬ 
telligence,  to  urge  upon  them  their  responsibilities  in 
reference  to  the  compensation  which  is  due  to  those 
who  give  the  toil  of  their  lives  to  the  benefit  of  society. 
The  problem  for  solution  which,  arises  out  of  the  con¬ 
dition  of  those  who  must  labor  for  a  living  is  not  merely 
what  relief  is  to  be  provided  for  those  who,  from  vice, 
improvidence,  or  accident,  are  precipitated  into  pauper¬ 
ism,  it  is.  What  is  the  system  of  law  or  of  society  which 
shall  best  secure  an  adequate  reward  to  labor  1  What 
will  form  the  best  barrier  to  inroads  of  poverty  and 
destitution  I 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


19 


Political  expediency,  the  necessity  of  some  degree  of 
social  order,  even  selfishness  for  its  own  sake,  may  dic¬ 
tate  concessions  and  compromises  among  jarring  in¬ 
terests,  clashing  claims,  and  opposing  powers,  but  there 
can  be  no  final  adjustment  and  no  principles  of  just 
discrimination  settled  where  sheer  force  or  temporary 
expediency  are  the  only  umpires.  It  is  the  law  of  love, 
of  mercy,  of  meekness,  humility,  and  brotherly  kind¬ 
ness,  as  applied  by  Christianity  to  every  possible  relation 
and  position  of  life,  which  can  sutficiently  discriminate 
in  its  intricacies  and  reach  all  the  sinuosities  of  human 

I 

condition ;  it  alone  is  the  oil  which  can  diffuse  itself 
over  all  the  tumultuous  and  ever- varying  sea  of  human 
life,  calm  its  surges,  and  smooth  its  surface.  In  its 
abounding  breadth  if  reaches  every  man  and  every  class 
of  men.  It  does  not  make  equals  of  men ;  it  does  not 
reduce  all  to  one  level;  but  it  is  adapted  to  that  state 
of  mental  and  physical  inequality  in  which  men  are 
everywhere  found.  There  is,  therefore,  in  human  in¬ 
firmities,  in  the  accidents,  calamities,  and  unhappy  con¬ 
ditions  of  human  life,  and  more  especially  among  that 
larger  portion  of  men  of  whom  labor  is  the  condition  of 
their  existence,  a  vast  field  for  the  exercise  of  all  the 
graces  which  can  adorn  Christian  character.  It  is  so 
intended  not  merely  for  their  sake  to  whom  kindness 
is  shown,  but  that  those  heavenly  qualities  and  graces 
which  emanate  from  Christianity  mav  be  cultivated  to 
the  utmost,  for  in  this  way  only  can  spiritual  life  and 
energy  be  manifested,  strengthened,  and  maintained  by 
those  who  are  largely  endowed  in  this  world.  And 
after  all  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  highest  attain¬ 
ments  in  spiritual  life  and  purity  are  made  by  those 
who  are  denied  the  comforts  of  this  life  and  spend  their 


20 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


days  in  suffering  and  patient  endurance.  On  the  part 
of  the  rich,  and  wise,  and  powerful,  a  life  of  active  kind¬ 
ness  and  useful  ministration  is  required ;  they  are  re¬ 
quired  to  follow  their  Master’s  example  in  going  about 
to  do  good.  If  the  whole  of  the  responsibilities  of  the 
rich  were  fully  understood  and  realized,  it  would  be  no 
small  consolation  to  the  destitute  and  the  suffering  that 
they  escape  very  many  of  the  heavy  cares  which  press 
upon  those  who  are  apparently  more  highly  favored  in 
this  life. 

There  is,  therefore,  in  Christianity  an  adjustment 
made  by  Infinite  wisdom  between  the  powerful  and  the 
.  weak,  the  wise  and  the  simple,  and  the  rich  and  poor, 
in  reference  to  their  respective  duties  and  conditions ; 
and  this  adjustment  should  be  thoroughly  studied  in 
the  Gospel  by  those  whom  it  most  concerns.  There  is 
not  a  position  in  social  life  to  which  the  principles  of 
this  adjustment  do  not  apply.  The  laborer  can  never 
be  defrauded  of  his  just  compensation  where  these  prin¬ 
ciples  prevail;  nor  can  he  demand  more  than  a  just  re¬ 
ward  for  his  toil.  The  lender  and  the  borrower,  the 
buyer  and  the  seller,  are  equally  bound  to  respect  these 
principles  in  their  transactions  ;  and  so  on  through 
every  class  of  life.  It  is  an  essential  part  of  Christianity, 
of  our  daily  religious  duty  thus  to  understand  and 
apply  the  doctrines  of  our  Saviour. 

If  Christians,  then,  be  required  to  study  carefully, 
and  we  may  add  religiously,  the  great  problem  of  human 
labor,  that  is,  what  is  due  in  social  life  to  the  men  of 
toil  who  are  the  real  support  of  civilization  and  social 
happiness,  how  are  they  to  commence  this  study  and  in 
what  direction  are  they  to  prosecute  it.  Whatever 
may  be  the  best  mode  of  entering  upon  this  vast  topic. 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


21 


it  must  be  important  in  the  earliest  stage  of  inquiry  to 
ascertain  what  fallacies,  prejudices,  or  mistakes  now 
cloud  our  vision  or  lie  in  the  path.  We  must  get  rid 
of  these  if  we  would  attain  a  clearer  view  of  the  around 

O 

we  are  to  traverse. 

In  this  inquiry  of  what  is  due  to  the  men  who  labor, 
we  begin  not  as  we  have  already  said  with  the  processes 
of  industry,  nor  with  the  products  of  industry;  we 
begin  not  with  the  processes  of  commerce,  nor  with  the 
principles  of  commerce.  These  belong  to  a  more  ad¬ 
vanced  stage  of  the  investigation ;  they  are  but  means 
to  the  end  we  have  in  view.  We  begin  with  the  men 
of  toil.  It  is  mainly  for  their  sake  that  the  processes  of 
industry  are  devised,  and  the  products  of  industry 
brought  forth ;  it  is  mainly  for  their  sake  that  the  dis¬ 
tribution  of  commodities  effected  by  trade  is  begun  and 
carried  on. 

The  labor  which  men  undergo  is  for  their  own  ad¬ 
vantage:  the  object  is  not  merely  to  swell  the  sum  of 
human  products,  nor  to  gorge  the  channels  of  com-  , 
merce ;  it  is  chiefly  applied  to  the  production  of  food,  of 
raiment,  of  furniture,  to  the  erection  of  dwellings,  and 
to  the  production  of  articles  of  luxury  and  of  art.  If 
all  this  industry  be  for  human  benefit,  then  it  should 
be  for  the  benefit  of  those  whose  industry  is  thus  em¬ 
ployed  ;  that  is,  the  producers  of  all  the  articles  re¬ 
ferred  to,  after  due  compensation  to  all  whose  assistance 
they  have  required  in  the  progress  of  their  industry, 
after  paying  for  the  use  of  capital  for  professional  aid, 
for  the  aid  of  science,  for  religious  teaching,  for  the  edu¬ 
cation  of  their  children,  and  for  the  expenses  of  govern¬ 
ment,  should  have  enough  left  for  their  own  food,  their 
own  raiment ;  they  should  have  houses  and  furniture. 


22 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


and  some  share  in  the  luxuries  and  works  of  art  which 
their  own  hands  have  made.  That  this  desirable  end 
cannot  be  exactly  and  •fully  attained  is  very  certain, 
for  that  would  bring  about  that  very  equality  which  is 
clearly  not  in  the  order  of  Providence.  But  though 
this  exact  justice  be  unattainable,  it  is  nevertheless  the 
duty  of  men  to  aim  at  it.  It  is  the  duty  of  Christian 
nien  to  be  perfect,  though  it  must  ever  be  their  lot  to 
fall  far  short  of  perfection.  The  principle  to  be  esta¬ 
blished  is  a  fair  apportionment  of  the  avails  of  labor 

according  to  the  share  which  each  and  all  may  have  in 

# 

the  production ;  the  end  to  be  attained  is  the  nearest 
approximation  to  that  adjustment  which  is  practicable, 
without  violating  other  duties  and  principles  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  of  equal  validity  and  importance. 

However  averse  many  are  from  the  discussion  of  this 
subject  of  social  justice,  and  whatever  apprehensions 
they  may  entertain  of  the  influences  of  socialism  or  other 
false  social  theories,  there  can  be  no  risk  in  approach¬ 
ing  its  consideration  under  the  full  light  of  Christian¬ 
ity.  We  can  be  in  no  danger  of  doing  injustice  to  any 
class  of  men,  so  long  as  we  are  guided  by  that  precept 
which  enjoins  us  to  love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves ;  an 
injunction  equally  binding  on  all  classes,  whatever  the 
contrast  of  their  condition.  We  must  apply  that  and 
other  Christian  injunctions  to  the  world  as  we  find  it, 
and  to  men  as  we  find  them,  and  in  this  application  we 
must  study  and  regard  human  nature  in  its  develop¬ 
ments,  past  and  present.  The  obstacles  to  the  attain¬ 
ment  of  strict  social  justice  are  innumerable,  and  belong 
chiefly  to  our  sinful  nature,  and  to  the  natural  inequa¬ 
lities  of  men.  Christians  have  erred  far  more  in  ne¬ 
glecting  to  discuss  and  present  to  the  world  the  bearing 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


23 


of  Christianity  upon  social  life,  than  the  socialists  and 
others  have  erred  in  attempting  to  frame  theories  and 
systems  of  social  philosophy  in  which  Christianity  is 
not  an  adequate  and  avowed  element.  There  is  not  an 
aspect  in  which  the  subject  can  be  regarded,  in  which 
the  light  of  Revelation  is  not  needed  for  any  complete 
elucidation. 

Men  are  not  born  equal ;  they  do  not  ^row  to  equa¬ 
lity  in  physical  or  mental  qualifications.  ^ .  ISTo  human 
training  could  produce  an  equality  evidently  not  con¬ 
templated  in  the  human  constitution.  Christianity  is 
designed  to  preside  over  the  very  inequalities  to  which 
the  human  family  is  plainly  appointed  in  this  world ; 
and  upon  this  many  of  its  most  solemn  and  impressive 
injunctions  are  founded.  The  strong  and  the  weak, 
the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  wise  and  the  unwise,  are 
placed  side  by  side  in  this  world,  subject  to  the  pecu¬ 
liar  and  appropriate  duties  arising  under  these  condi¬ 
tions.  Each  must  do  good  to  the  other  as  ability  and 
opportunity  permit.  In  no  respect  do  the  unequal 
positions  of  this  life  appear  more  glaring  than  in  what 
pertains  to  labor,  and  in  none  is  there  greater  need  for 
the  interposition  of  the  guiding  and  ameliorating  influ¬ 
ences  of  Christianity.  Some  are  born  suitable  only  for 
subordinate  positions,  and  seem  only  happy  in  them  ; 
some  are  incapable  of  any  successful  application  of  their 
labor  except  under  the  guidance  and  control  of  others ; 
some  are  so  little  disposed  to  obey  the  requirements  of 
labor,  that  they  need  to  be  continually  urged,  if  not 
compelled,  to  that  duty.  Without  the  social  arrange¬ 
ments  adapted  to  these  facts  and  to  the  circumstances 
to  which  they  give  rise,  civilization  cannot  exist.  In¬ 
dustry  is  indispensable  to  abundance ;  plenty  is  indis- 


24 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABQ,R. 


pensable  to  civilization ;  Christianity  is  indispensable  to 
restrain  and  regulate  the  social  conduct  and  mutual  re¬ 
lations  of  civilized  life.  The  masses  who  labor  under 
established  social  and  political  arrangements,  are  like 
horses  saddled  and  bridled  or  harnessed  for  work ;  the 
harness  and  the  bridle  may  be  needful  for  the  work  and 
for  his  hand  who  guides,  but  Christianity  alone  ade- 
Cjuately  teaches  the  mutual  duties  of  the  driver  and  the 
driven,  of  him  who  directs  and  him  who  executes,  of 
the  governor  and  the  governed.  It  i^  then  an  indis¬ 
pensable  obligation  of  Christians,  as  civilization  ad¬ 
vances  and  industry  progresses,  to  develop  the  bearing  of 
Christianity  upon  the  new  order  of  things,  and  the  new 
relations  which  spring  up.  It  is  indispensable  that  the 
masses  should  ever  in  their  varying  positions  be  under 
Christian  safeguards,  under  the  protection  of  the  great 
law  of  Christian  charity.  If  Christian  brethren  are 
over  them,  they  should  always  experience  the  benefits 
of  the  relationship,  and  whatever  the  severity  of  the 
toil  to  which  they  are  doomed,  they  should  never  cease 
to  be  treated  with  kindness,  not  merely  as  the  most  im¬ 
portant  members  of  the  social  body,  buk  as  brethren  of 
the  same  Christian  family. 

In  the  complications  of  social  and  political  institutions, 
it  may  be  very  difficult  to  point  out  the  bearings  of  the 
great  law  of  kindness  upon  the  conduct  and  mutual 
relations  of  men,  but  this  difficulty  by  no  means  dis¬ 
charges  us  from  a  duty,  which  can  only  become  easy 
by  habitual  regard  to  the  subject,  and  an  habitual  per¬ 
formance  of  its  requirements.  If  the  obligation  to  love 
our  fellow-men  as  ourselves  be  allowed  its  whole  scope, 
it  must  soon  be  perceived  that  a  special  duty  will  rest 
upon  all  who  are  capable  of  discharging  it,  that  of 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


25 


\ 


thoroughly  studying  social  philosophy,  social  and  politi¬ 
cal  institutions,  and  their  influences  upon  human  wel¬ 
fare.  Men  cannot  otherwise  ascertain  how  they  can 
best  promote  human  interests.  The  question  of  what 
is  to  be  done  for  a  single  pauper  is  frequently  so  difficult 
as  to  create  hesitation,  but  the  more  complicated  and 
important  question  continually  meets  the  Christian, 
whether  he  considers  it  or  not,  what  is  to  he  done  for 
the  million '?  It  is  no  excuse  for  want  of  interest  or 
consideration  that  a  million  of  human  beings,  and  not 
merely  one,  demand  the  exercise  of  our  intelligence 
and  all  the  help  we  can  give  them.  We  may  give 
effectual  help  to  one,  but  to  millions  sunk  in  the  depths 
of  want,  we  can  give  no  other  aid  than  to  apply  our¬ 
selves  to  the  study  of  those  problems  of  social  life,  upon 
the  solution  of  which  the  remedies  for  poverty  and 
social  suffering  must  depend.  No  conceivable  duty  of 
the  intelligent  Christian  can  be  of  higher  obligation 
than  that  which  directs  his  attention  to  topics,  in  which 
the  present  as  well  as  the  future  welfare  of  millions  of 
his  fellow-creatures  are  involved.  It  must  be  a  mis¬ 
taken  notion  that  Christians  have  nothing  to  do  with 
politics.  No  assertion  can  be  more  unfounded,  or  of 
more  pernicious  tendency.  Christians  are  everywhere 
submissive  to  constituted  authority,  but  should  not 
be  anvwhere  indifferent  as  to  the  choice  of  these  aiitho- 
rities,  or  how  they  exercise  their  power.  Christians 
having  nothing  to  do  with  governments,  in  their  collec¬ 
tive  or  ecclesiastical  capacity,  are  bound  in  their  in¬ 
dividual  capacities  to  use  their  influence  and  power  to 
the  utmost  extent  for  the  promotion  of  human  welfare. 
Christianity  exerts  thus  its  beneficent  power  in  national 
affairs  through  individuals,  who,  if  Christians  indeed, 


/ 


26  THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 

or  even  merely  friends  of  Christianity,  must  carry  some 
of  its  principles  with  them  into  every  institution,  politi¬ 
cal  or  social,  in  which  they  move.  If  the  people  of  a  coun¬ 
try  are  Christians,  they  cannot  but  exhibit  some  of  the 
aspects  of  Christianity  in  the  policy  and  administration 
of  their  government.  It  is  the  mode  in  which  they  can 
most  effectually  perform  the  part  of  the  good  Samaritan. 
This  involves,  then,  we  repeat  it,  a  deep  and  earnest 
study  of  social  and  political  questions,  and  of  the  whole 
range  of  practical  legislation.  It  involves  a  persevering 
and  enlightened  effort  for  social  amelioration,  greater 
than  has  yet  been  undertaken. 

In  such  an  effort,  the  first  consideration  being  the 
man,  the  laborer,  his  welfare  is  the  first  object  to  be 
secured,  and  that  is  to  be  secured  through  his  labor. 
He  should  be  compensated  in  the  way  which  is  best  for 
him,  and  whether  freeman  or  slave,  the  employer  or 
master  cannot  escape  the  obligation  to  deal  justly  with 
his  laborer,  and  to  do  the  best  he  can  for  him.  It  is 
often  in  the  power  of  the  master  to  afford  a  better  com¬ 
pensation  than  the  mere  employer.  The  slaves  belong 
to  the  family ;  they  are  of  the  master’s  household ;  his 
care  of  them  should  be  patriarchal  or  parental.  It  is 
in  this  aspect  that  the  relation  of  master  and  man  has 
been  neglected.  The  master  in  most  cases  is  bound  to 
do  better  for  his  people  than  to  turn  them  adrift ;  he 
is  bound  to  train  them  to  piety,  to  industry,  self-control, 
and  finally  liberty.  But  what  the  master  owes  to  the 
slave  is  not  less  due  from  the  employer,  and  from  society 
itself  to  the  free  laborer.  The  virtual  slavery  of  the 
workshop  or  the  factory  may  be  more  galling,  if  not 
more  fatal  to  the  man,  than  the  actual  slavery  of  the 
plantation.  Where  the  interests  of  humanity  are  con- 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


27 


cerned,  we  must  regard  realities,  and  not  merely  the 
names  of  things.  We  should  search  the  deepest  re¬ 
cesses  of  society  to  see  if  men  are  not  suffering  there, 
if  they  are  receiving  a  full  compensation  for  their  labor, 
if  the  opportunity  of  labor  is  not  withheld,  if  they  are 
not  oppressed  and  crushed  by  circumstances  they  cannot 
control.  Those  who  occupy  the  favored  positions  of 
life  cannot  acquit  themselves  before  God  if  they  do 
not  honestly  and  faithfully  make  this  inquisition.  If 
they  love  their  neighbor  they  will  do  it ;  if  they  obey 
the  Divine  precept  they  must  look  after  and  care  for 
their  fellow-men.  They  must  be -careful  that  the  worst 
and  most  hopeless  kind  of  slavery  is  not  imposed  upon 
those  who  labor  for  their  daily  bread, — the  slavery  of 
circumstances,  the  slavery  of  institutions,  of  social  cus¬ 
toms  and  influences,  the  slavery  in  which  he  that  toils 
is  governed  by  the  unrelaxing  hand  of  stern  necessity, 
having  no  single  master  interested  in  his  welfare  or 
watching  over  him.  Slaves  of  this  kind  are  taught  by 
bitter  experience  how  much  harder  frequently  is  the 
lot  of  him  whom  society  enslaves,  than  of  him  who  is 
exposed  only  to  the  caprices  of  a  single  person,  deeply 
interested  in  preserving  his  strength,  his  health,  and 
his  life. 

There  is  perhaps  no  greater  source  of  mistake  and 
misapprehension  in  the  study  of  human  condition  and 
'  human  interests  than  that  which  is  committed  by  the 
disproportionate  attention  given  to  what  occurs  or  is 
presented  in  the  large  cities  of  the  world.  These  are 
marts  of  trade  or  agencies  in  the  business  of  foreign 
trade.  Such  are  the  great  agencies  of  London  and 
Liverpool,  Paris  and  New  York.  Vast  multitudes 
congregate  in  them,  and  a  mighty  business  is  there 


28 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


concentrated.  But  these  multitudes  bear  but  a  small 
proportion  to  those  whose  business  they  transact,  and 
their  whole  agency,  though  vast,  is  small  in  comparison 
with  the  value  of  the  productions  of  the  country  in 
which  they  are  situate.  Their  business  appears  im¬ 
mense  only,  because,  being  exhibited  on  a  small  stage, 
it  is  more  visible  to  the  eye.  The  whole  foreign  trade 
of  any  country  seldom  exceeds  ten  per  cent,  of  the  value 
of  its  domestic  productions,  and  only  in  a  few  countries 
exceeds  live  per  cent.,  whilst  in  many  rich  countries  it  is 
far  less.  What  is  imported  from  abroad  must  be  paid 
for  by  what  is  produced  at  home.  It  is  not  to  these 
great  marts,  whatever  other  lessons  of  social  wisdom 
we  may  learn  from  them,  that  we  are  to  look  for  the 
solution  of  the  great  problems  of  labor.  The  proper 
reform  of  our  social  and  political  institutions,  in  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  interests  of  laborers,  would  undoubtedly 
carry  with  it  many  changes  in  these  great  commercial 
agencies,  in  which  princely  merchants  too  often  gild  a 
surface  beneath  which  are  impoverished  multitudes. 
The  wealth  which  is  amassed  in  such  commercial  cities 
consists  mainly  of  charges  levied  upon  goods  as  they 
pass  from  the  hands  of  the  laborer  to  the  hands  of  the 
consumer.  It  is  not  by  increasing  the  quantity  of 
goods  exposed  to  this  heavy  taxation  that  we  can  favor 
the  laborer.  The  great  mass  of  men  being  producers, 
and  all  men  being  consumers,  the  less  expensive  the 
agency  by  which  the  interchange  is  made  the  better  for 
all.  The  success  of  merchants  may  be  the  ruin  of  la¬ 
borers  ;  but  the  prosperity  and  increased  activity  of 
laborers  must  increase  the  business  of  merchants.  The 
first  care  of  the  nation  to  give  free  scope  to  the  indus¬ 
try  of  its  masses  being  fulfilled,  the  agencies  for  distri- 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


29 


bution  will  not  linger  beliincl  the  need  of  them.  The 
business  of  the  merchant  is  one  for  which  men  have 
shown  in  all  ages  great  predilection.  It  is  a  profession 
celebrated  for  its  wealth,  intelligence,  enterprise,  and 
generosity.  Its  profits,  however,  were  never  anything 
else  than  charges  upon  industry.  Men  endowed  with 
more  than  usual  quickness  of  perception,  energy,  enter¬ 
prise,  or  affected  with  greater  ambition  or  desire  of 
gain,  have  always  been  ready  to  embark  by  preference 
in  a  pursuit  in  which  their  business  was  not  to  live  by 
their  own  labor  so  much  as  by  the  labor  of  others,  in 
which  the  opportunities  of  exacting  large  profits  were 
so  much  more  frequent  than  in  the  more  confined  pur¬ 
suits  of  industrial  production.  It  is  not  by  promoting 
commerce,  that  is  by  increasing  the  number  of  mer¬ 
chants  who  live  upon  the  industry  of  others,  nor  by 
increasing  the  weight  of  the  charges  which  are  thus 
levied  upon  the  products  of  industry,  nor  even  by  en¬ 
larging  the  quantity  of  merchandise  exposed  to  this 
heavy  tribute,  that  the  interests  of  the  laboring  masses 
are  to  be  secured.  Whatever  the  necessity  and  the 
advantage  of  trade  and  great  commercial  agencies,  their 
very  existence  is  subservient  to  that  labor  and  to  that 
production  which  gives  occasion  for  them.  We  make 
a  great,  a  fatal,  but  too  frequent  mistake  when  our 
speculations,  our  social  systems,  and  our  legislation  are 
shaped  in  reference  to  the  interests  of  commerce,  in 
place  of  the  interests  and  welfare  of  those  hosts  of  la¬ 
borers  who  send  forth  not  only  the  productions  which 
are  so  conspicuous  in  the  channels  of  foreign  trade,  but 
also  those  tenfold  greater  quantities  of  products  which 
swell  the  sum  of  domestic  trade  and  consumption. 
We  must  begin  with  the  principals,  and  not  with  the 


30 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


.•y- 


agents,  if  we  hope  to  attain  any  reasonable  accuracy  in 
our  conclusions.  Having  provided  for  the  producer, 
we  may  then  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  those 
agencies  and  classes  of  laborers  whose  business  follows 
and  arises  out  of  the  former ;  and  so  proceed  until  our 
survey  of  society  is  complete.  We  thus  commence  the 
social  structure  with  the  foundation,  and  proceed  regu¬ 
larly  upward  until  the  whole  is  complete. 

The  picture  of  a  great  free  trade  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  in  which  each  exchanges  its  respective 
or  peculiar  products  for  those  of  others  without  un¬ 
friendly  restraint  or  restriction  of  any  kind,  captivates 
many  minds.  This  picture  is  an  illusion  which  has  no 
sufficient  foundation  in  the  realities  of  life.  It  is  cer¬ 
tainly  an  attractive  way  of  treating  the  subject,  but  it 
furnishes  no  basis  for  a  system  of  political  or  industrial 
economy.  On  the  average,  not  more  than  five  per 
cent,  of  the  wants  of  any  people  can  be  supplied  by 
foreign  trade.  The  other  ninety-hve  must  then  be  the 
product  of  home  industry.  The  chief  care  of  the  na¬ 
tion  should  be  the  producers  of  this  ninety-five  per 
cent,  of  the  articles  of  home  consumption.  Their  wel¬ 
fare  being  well  assured,  their  production  would  increase, 
and  the  interchange  among  them,  by  which  this  ninety- 
five  per  cent,  is  distributed,  woidd  be  quickened  and 
enlarged.  The  real  power,  wealth,  and  comfort  of  a 
people  must  be  found  in  the  consumption  of  their  do¬ 
mestic  products.  Very  few  nations  are  so  situated  as 
to  import  from  abroad  any  considerable  portion  of  their 
entire  consumption  ;  either  they  have  no  means  of  pay- 
ing>,  or  they  cannot  afford  to  pay  the  expenses  of  trans¬ 
portation.  Thus  foreign  trade  is  subject  to  a  limit 
which  it  can  never  overstep,  and  that  limit  will  ever 
bear  a  small  proportion  to  the  whole  wants  of  a  people. 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


31 


In  the  United  States,  the  entire  annual  consumption 
of  goods  manuflxctured  and  used  for  raiment  considera¬ 
bly  exceeds  one  thousand  million  dollars.’  Now,  however 
cheaply  such  goods  are  made  abroad,  we  can  neither 
purchase,  transport,  nor  pay  for  half  that  quantity. 
Our  imports  of  such  merchandise  have  not  hitherto  ex¬ 
ceeded  ten  per  cent,  of  our  consumption.  Those  who 
are  dependent  on  foreign  nations  for  such  supplies  can 
consume  only  what  their  exports  will  pay  for,  whilst 
those  who  depend  on  home  industry  for  their  clothing 
may  consume  all  they  can-  manufacture.  Home  indus¬ 
try  consults  home  wants,  and  fully  supplies  them  by 
what  is  equivalent  to  an  interchange  of  labor.  The 
labor  of  a  nation  cannot  produce  any  considerable  ex¬ 
cess  beyond  what  is  required  for  the  wants,  comforts, 
and  enjoyments  of  its  people.  An  exchange  of  com¬ 
modities  within  a  nation  founded  on  the  consumption 
of  the  products  of  its  labor,  may  proceed  to  the  full 
productive  capacity  of  the  people,  and  at  the  least  loss 
in  transportation  and  other  charges.  This  consumption 
will  not  in  the  least  be  diminished  by  apparent  high 
prices  established  among  themselves,  because  these 
prices  are  their  own  scale  by  which  to  value  labor.  All 
are  paid  according  to  this  scale,  and  none  can  justly 
complain.  Above  all,  none  should  strive  to  enjoy  these 
high  rates  for  what  they  receive,  and  be  unwilling  to 
pay  them  for  what  they  consume. 

The  picture  then  which  we  should  first  desire  to  see 
is  not  that  of  foreign  commerce,  grand  and  imposing 
in  its  exhibition,  though  representing  such  a  small  pro¬ 
portion  of  the  industry  of  any  country,  but  that  which 
presents  the  millions  of  homes  filled  with  industrious 
people,  fully  employed  in  ministering  to  their  mutual 


V 


32 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


wants,  and  enjoying  a  full  share  of  the  products  or  re¬ 
wards  of  their  own  labor.  The  industry  of  a  people 
developed  upon  the  principle  of  supplying  their  own 
wants  first  will  not  fail  in  the  end  to  contribute  even 
more  largely  than  others  to  that  international  commerce 
which  deserves  all  the  favor  which  is  claimed  for  it, 
when  it  grows  out  of  the  industry  of  a  well-fed,  well- 
clad,  and  well-educated  people,  and  is  not  put  forward 
as  tlie  chieif-jencLof  industrial  effort,  the  criterion  of  na¬ 
tional  happines&,_aiid_the  very  basis  of  political  eco¬ 
nomy. 

The  nation  that  depends  upon  foreign  trade  for  its 

« 

'i  progress  in  the  physical  well-being  of  its  people,  must 
tax  its  laborers  to  produce  goods  lower  than  all  the 
world  beside.  If  successful  in  this,  the  utmost  that 
can  be  expected  is  the  enriching  of  a  very  small  class 
of  merchants,  and  the  utter  impoverishment  of  a  mighty 
Imass  of  toiling  men.  The  nation  whose  policy  is  not 
chiefly  to  manufacture  for  its  own  people  may  build 
large  and  rich  cities,  but  the  bulk  of  its  people  must 
shiver  and  starve,  and  suffer  what  can  only  be  conceived 
by  those  who  have  seen  the  victims  of  this  exclusive 
devotion  to  the  interests  of  commerce. 

Many  of  the  leading  works  upon  Political  Economy 
treat  labor  merely  as  a  productive  agent,  as  the  power 
which  produces  the  wealth  of  the  world ;  the  nature  of 
that  power  as  the  agency  of  a  moral  and  intellectual 
being  is  but  little  considered.  So  far  therefore  as  most 
of  the  propositions  and  reasonings  of  political  economy 
go,  they  may  be  regarded  as  not  distinguishing  the  labor 
of  man  from  that  of  beasts,  or  that  of  machinery. 
Political  economists  do  not  absolutely  discard  the  labor¬ 
ing  man  from  their  systems ;  they  merely  discard  his 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


88 


advantage  as  a  governing  principle  or  element  in  their 
deductions.  They  pay  small  regard  to  moral  conside¬ 
rations  in  their  treatment  of  the  subject  of  wealth. 
Even  when  they  treat  of  labor,  their  first  step,  instead 
of  towards  the  laborer,  is  into  the  product  of  industry, 
and  thence  into  trade,  distribution,  consumption,  and 
other  like  abstractions. 

This  first  step  is,  unfortunately  for  the  science  of  po¬ 
litical  economy,  in  the  wrong  direction ;  it  is‘  a  step 
from  man :  it  should  he  a  step  towards  or  with  him. 
The  inquirer  by  this  first  step  having  deserted  the  sole 
ground  of  human  advantage,  is  embarked  upon  a  sea 
of  abstractions.  The  first  inquiries  should  have  been. 
Who  is  the  laborer  1  What  is  his  condition  %  What  is 
the  labor  for  1  its  object  and  its  end  X  Man  is  the  la¬ 
borer.  He  is  a  creature  of  God,  under  whose  govern¬ 
ment  and  laws  he  is  placed,  and  by  one  of  these  laws 
he  is  ap])ointed  to  eat  his  bread  in  -the  sweat  of  his . 
brow.  Another  of  these  laws  equally  obligatory  binds 
him  “  to  love  his  neighbor  as  liimsHf.”  This  love  is 
the  bond  of  society,  and  society  is  made  a  necessity  by 
the  very  constitution  of  man.  The  helplessness  of  in¬ 
fancy  extending  to  the  third  of  his  years  ;  the  feeble¬ 
ness  of  an  old  age  consuming  another  third,  leaves  to 
man  but  a  few  short  years  of  the  prime  of  manhood. 
And  these:  to  what  interruptions  of  disease  and  acci¬ 
dent  are  they  exposed  !  Man  is  endowed  with  won¬ 
derful  powers,  both  physical  and  mental,  and  yet  how 
difi&cult  to  conceive  of  a  creature  more  dependent !  The 
law  of  God,  the  providence  of  God,  and  everything 
in  the  constitution  and  the  position  of  man  in  this 
world  goes  to  prove  him  a  dependent  creature.  Men 

are  mutually  dependent  for  earthly  happiness  to  a  de- 

3 


34 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


gree  that  cannot  be  over  estimated.  Their  labor  is 
greatly  affected  and  controlled  by  this  mutual  depend¬ 
ence  under  all  circumstances  of  society ;  the  precise 
extent  of  which  control  can  only  he  defined  and  ad¬ 
justed  by  moral  and  religious  considerations.  But 
whilst  human  labor  would  always  be  thus  subject  to 
the  claims  for  succor  arisiiifi^  from  this  condition  of  mu- 
tual  dependence,  it  must  also,  as  between  man  and  man, 
be  subject  to  the  laws  of  justice.  Under  the  protection 
of  justice  springs  up  the  right  of  private  property, 
which,  while  it  is  absolute  as  a  matter  of  right  between 
men,  is  not  free  from  the  moral  claims  which  may  be 
made  upon  it  under  the  great  law  of  mutual  succor. 
These  elements  being  placed,  we  may  safely  proceed  to 
the  consideration  of  labor  as  a  productive  power.  Its 
sole  object  is  human  advantage.  Every  laborer  in  the 
first  instance  would  be  entitled  to  the  whole  avails  of 
Jiis  own  labor.  In  process  of  time  this  is  reduced  by 
what  the  laborer  gives  for  protection  and  guidance,  and 
what  he  gives  under  the  infiuence  of  moral  or  religious 
consideration  for  the  aid  of  others ;  and  there  can  be 
no  other  valid  claim  upon  men’s  labor,  unless  it  be  of 
their  own  making.  In  the  origin  of  society  labor  is 
the  only  valuable  which  men  possess.  v^It  is  first  em- 
^  ployed  in  providing  for  their  own  immediate  wants  and 
the  wants  of  those  immediately  dependent  upon  them. 
It  is  next  employed  in  producing  something  to  exchange 
for  the  products  of  others,  thereby  to  obtain  additional 
comforts  from  others.  This  exchange  may  increase  in 
importance  to  the  parties  and  in  quantity  of  products 
until  some  agency  is  necessary  to  carry  it  on,  and  a 
class  of  laborers  become  devoted  to  the  task  of  receiv¬ 
ing,  transporting,  and  distributing  to  consumers.  As 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


35 


each  man  is  limited  in  the  amount  he  can  purchase  by 
the  amount  he  can  sell,  so  are  all  the  men  of  a  com¬ 
munity  limited  ;  and  the  quantity  of  products  disposed 
of  by  all  is  the  .  precise  measure  of  what  is  to  be  re¬ 
ceived  by  all.  In  this  exchange  of  the  products  of  in¬ 
dustry,  it  is  but  mere  justice  that  the  terms  should  be 
equal,  and  that  all  should  receive  a  fair  remuneration 
for  their  own  labor  in  the  labor  of  others  ;  proper  dis¬ 
crimination  being  made  in  favor  of  special  skill,  taste, 
and  inventive  powers.  Where  men  have  any  power  to 
exact  what  they  regard  as  a  just  compensation  for  labor, 
there  will  soon  be  some  average  rate  by  which  all  va¬ 
luations  will  have  a  tendency  to  be  fixed.  In  any  circle 
of  laborers,  however  large,  it  must  ‘be  soon  ascertained 
what  rate  of  labor  will  enable  laborers  to  live  comfort¬ 
ably,  and  beyond  the  suffering  condition  of  poverty. 
This  rate  will  be  that  which  must  regulate  the  exchange¬ 
able  value  of  the  products  of  labor,  because  each  pro¬ 
ducer  will  strive  to  obtain  for  his  productions  other  ar¬ 
ticles  which  have  cost  as  much  of  the  labor  of  others. 
The  tendency  of  these  operations  would  be  to  exchange 
the  products  of  equal  .quantities  of  labor,  and  this 
would  in  the  main  be  the  course  of  justice  between  the 
parties,  subject,  however,  to  many  variations  and  inter¬ 
ruptions. 

Whatever  advantages  of  fortune,  or  of  skill,  or  of  ac¬ 
cident,  or  whatever  endowments,  physical  or  mental, 
may  be  possessed  by  some  over  others,  the  bulk  of 
every  population  must  ever  remain  laborers.  The  more 
of  the  favored  who  are  exempt  from  the  necessity  of 
toil,  the  more  strictly  must  the  remainder  be  bound  to 
that  labor  which  yields  the  sustenance,  necessaries,  and 
luxuries  of  all. 


36 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


The  power  of  labor  in  any  country  is  the  grand  item 
of  its  wealth ;  it  is  a  power  upon  which  the  country  is 
absolutely  dependent ;  it  is  a  power  which  insures  pub¬ 
lic  and  individual  prosperity  when  in  full  vigor,  and 
corresponding  poverty  and  debility  when  it  is  left  to 
languish.  If  to  the  productive  labor  of  a  country  its 
people  owe  all  their  wealth,  all  their  enjoyments,  all 
their  food  and  raiment,  all  their  luxuries  and  necessa¬ 
ries,  and  all  their  progress  in  material  well-being, 
should  not  that  labor  and  its  rewards  be  an  object  of 
special  study  and  consideration  The  laborers  are 
men,  men  who  chiefly  “  constitute  the  state  men  who 
are  equally  candidates  for  comfort  and  for  heaven  with 
the  highest  in  the  land.  Can  any  subject  of  legislative 
action  be  for  an  instant  put  in  comparison  with  this  '? 
Can  any  wisdom,  device,  or  skill  of  government  be  di¬ 
rected  to  a  happier  or  better  purpose  than  that  of  add¬ 
ing  to  the  efficiency  of  human  labor,  and  to  the  pro¬ 
ductive  power  and  wealth  of  a  nation,  by  increasing 
the  sum  of  general  happiness  and  intelligence,  thus 
making  every  individual  man  a  more  efficient  contribu¬ 
tor  to  his  own  comfort  and  to  the  common  weal  ]  The 
problem  of  labor  cannot  fail  of  finding  its  solution  when 
approached  by  a  direct  consideration  of  the  condition 
of  men,  of  their  necessities,  their  desires,  their  capaci¬ 
ties,  their  moral  and  physical  well-being,  and  their  ob¬ 
ligations  to  God  and  to  each  other.  Such  is  the  nature 
of  the  elements  from  which  any  sound  and  stable  sys¬ 
tem  of  social  economy  must  be  developed ;  and  any 
system  built  on  other  foundations  must  lead  to  confu¬ 
sion  of  ideas  in  its  progress,  and  to  unsafe  or  false  con¬ 
clusions  in  the  end. 

If  we  glance  at  those  stages  by  which  society  in  the 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


37 


civilized  world  lias  arrived  at  its  present  condition,  we 
find  that  the  same  elements  were  required  for  the  solu¬ 
tion  of  the  problem  of  human  well-being  ;  complicated 
as  it  now  is  hy  an  infinity  of  facts  and  questions,  which 
time,  ancient  institutions,  false  teaching,  and  modern 
prejudices  have  fastened  upon  it,  no  other  solution  can 
be  satisfactory.  Human  labor  is  becoming  more  and 
more  important  as  an  item  in  national  wealth  and  indi¬ 
vidual  welfare  ;  the  life  of  man  is  of  higher  value  than 
formerly,  and  considerations  of  humanity  have  risen 
higher  than  ever.  It  is  now  clearly  impossible  to  solve 
the  problem  of  human  progress  in  happiness  and  pros¬ 
perity  without  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  labor.  We 
cannot  tell  what  is  due  to  humanity,  until  we  have  set¬ 
tled  what  is  due  to  labor,  or  what  is  due  to  that  vast 
array  of  laborers  who  carry  forward  the  world  in  all  its 
physical  and  material  progress,  and  whose  labor  creates 
what  is  indispensable  for  the  daily  life  of  every  nation. 

When  the  evils  of  societv  become  severe  or  intolera- 
ble  to  masses  of  men,  reformers  often  appear  who 
would  remedy  all  that  is  wrong  by  destroying  or  en¬ 
dangering  all  that  is  good  ;  by  upturning  the  whole 
fabric  of  existing  systems,  whilst  the  friends  of  order 
remain  stupidly  unprepared  with  plans  of  amelioration 
or  even  a  remedial  suggestion.  Xheir  philosophy  con¬ 
sists  in  glorifying  the  past  and  the  present ;  their 
energy  consists  in  standing  still;  and  their  words  to 
the  suffering  are,  Bear  and  forbear,  the  evils  of  which 
you  complain  are  either  the  consequence  of  your  own 
conduct,  or  they  are  inevitable  and  incurable.  In  refe 
rence  to  such  questions,  there  is  far  more  energy  and 
talent  expended  in  opposing  inquiry  and  sustaining 
error,  than  might  suffice  to  ascertain  the  truth ;  for  the 


38 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


fear  of  change  seems  far  stronger  and  more  prevalent 
than  the  love  of  truth.  If  the  truth,  however,  were 
only  looked  in  the  face,  her  benign  features  would 
rapidly  dissipate  the  apprehensions  which,  in  reference 
to  social  questions,  so  torment  the  timid  ;  for  though  it 
might  demonstrate  that  certain  changes  were  necessary, 
it  would  not  cease  to  be  true  that  one  evil  must  not  be 
cured  by  perpetrating  another.  The  consideration  of 
the  reforms  which  are  needed,  involves  also  the  con¬ 
sideration  of  the  manner  in  which  they  are  to  be  ef¬ 
fected.  Remedies  can  only  be  prudently  applied  when 
the  disease  is  understood ;  but  we  should  not  refuse  to 
study  the  disease,  because  possibly  the  remedy  might 
prove  to  be  of  difficult  application  by  those  who  are  to 
administer  it,  or  unpalatable  to  those  to  whom  it  is  to 
be  administered. 

Political  economy  has,  however,  its  remedy  for  the 
ills  of  industry;  it  oilers  a  specific  for  these  mighty 
mischiefs.  It  offers  the  principle,  so  celebrated  under 
the  phrase,  laissez  faire  et  laissez  This  is  broad 

enough,  it  is  insisted,  to  cover  the  whole  ground  of  the 
evils  under  which  labor  suffers.  But  political  economy 
as  a  science  sternly  rejects  moral  considerations,  does 
not  know  humanity  nor  recognize  Christianity.  The 
remedy  proposed  is  not,  therefore,  exhibited  with  any 
view  to  ameliorate  the  lot  of  the  laboring  man  or  the 
laboring  masses,  but  with  a  view  to  the  interests  of 
commerce.  The  doctrine  of  laissez  faire  et  laissez  ’passer^ 
or  the  let-alone  principle,  is  that,  if  commerce  prospers 
labor  must  prosper ;  that  if  every  man  is  left  in  the 
matter  of  production  and  trade  to  pursue  his  own  in¬ 
clinations  unfettered,  he  will  follow  the  path  most  for 
his  own  benefit,  and  by  doing  so,  promote  in  the  highest 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


39 


degree  the  interest  of  his  country,  for  that  whicli  is  best 
for  each  one  must  in  the  aggregate  he  best  for  all. 

There  is  truth  enough  in  these  positions  to  give  them 
a  degree  of  plausibility ;  but  no  doctrine  can  be  more 
unsound  than  this  as  it  is  attempted  to  be  applied.  The 
liberty  of  the  subject  is  likewise  a  favorite  phrase  and 
may  be  taken  in  a  sense  not  in  the  least  objectionable. 
Liberty  is  of  inestimable  value  to  every  individual  in 
society,  and  the  law  is  exceedingly  jealous  of  every 
attempt  at  its  invasion.  Yet  whilst  a  free  government 
guarantees  all  possible  liberty,  it  restrains  that  liberty 
in  a  thousand  ways  from  becoming  injurious  or  offensive. 
It  does  not  permit  men,  however  injured,  to  take  redress 
into  their  own  hands,  nor  does  it  permit  the  commission 
of  a  thousand  offences  which  unrestrained  liberty 
prompts  men  to  commit.  Liberty  is  the  rule  indeed, 
but  the  exceptions  are  so  numerous  as  quite  to  change 
its  aspect  and  form  a  grand  mass  of  restraints.  Liberty 
is  the  rule  in  reference  to  all  free  governments ;  yet 
nearly  all  constitutions  and  laws  are  but  the  forms  of 
those  restrictions  of  personal  liberty  to  which  indi¬ 
viduals  submit,  for  their  own  benefit  and  the  general 
good  of  a  whole  community. 

Unrestrained  liberty  is  the  principle  of  savage  life;, 
that  of  civilized  life  is  the  due  restraint  of  individual 
freedom.  The  principle  of  liberty  pushed  too  far  in 
reference  to  the  institutions  of  civilization  dissolves  the 
whole  fabric  and  carries  people  back  to  barbarism.  But 
this  is  not  more  true  in  reference  to  those  rights  which 
relate  to  the  inviolability  of  the  person  than  in  reference 
to  property  and  labor,  llegulation  is  as  necessary  for 
the  protection  of  men’s  property  or  labor  as  of  their 
persons ;  men  should  no  more  be  permitted  to  take  re- 


40 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


dress  into  their  own  hands  in  the  matter  of  their  estates 
than  in  the  matter  of  their  persons.  Both  persons  and 
property  are  necessarily  placed  under  the  restraints, 
regulations,  and  protection  of  public  law,  which  bears  or 
ought  to  bear  equally  upon  all.  The  let-alone  principle 
of  political  economy  if  pursued  to  its  logical  conse¬ 
quences  would  loosen,  if  not  wholly  dissolve,  all  these 
ligatures  of  civilized  society.  It  may  be  said  the  doc¬ 
trine  does  not  refer  to  the  right  of  protecting  persons 
from  injury  or  property  from  pillage,  but  to  tlie  right 
of  men  to  be  guided  by  their  own  inclinations,  and  to 
follow  their  own  judgments  in  the  manner' of  accumu¬ 
lating  riches.  Let  there  be  free  trade,  they  say;  let 
merchants  be  unrestrained  in  their  operations,  and  the 
result  will  be  happy  for  all.  A  very  slight  examination 
will  show  that  this  principle  fully  carried  out  is  as  dan¬ 
gerous  to  human  welfare  as  any  the  laws  are  employed 
to  combat.  There  is  no  career  in  which  men  show  more 
selfishness  and  a  more  constant  disposition  to  trample 
upon  the  rights  of  others  than  in  the  acquisition  of 
wealth.  There  are  ten  men  who  will  take  advantage 
of  their  neighbor  in  a  matter  of  business,  or  exact  an 
inordinate  profit,  for  one  who  will  actually  steal,  or 
murder,  or  maim.  The  vast  superiority  of  some  men 
over  others  in  both  mental  and  physical  energies,  to¬ 
gether  with  innumerable  other  causes,  gives  them  a 
power  over  their  fellow-men  which  they  are  under  con¬ 
tinual  temptation  to  abuse.  To  deny  that  such  power 
would  be  obtained,  and  to  contend  that  if  obtained 
it  would  not  be  abused,  is  to  deny  the  history  of  the 
past  and  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  most  prominent  traits 
of  human  nature. 

To  open  any  avenue  to  wealth,  or  power,  or  pros- 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


41 


pcrity,  and  leave  it  -without  restraint  or  regulation,  is  no 
boon  to  the  mass  of  men;  all  the  advantages  thus 
ottered  to  the  public  -will  be  seized  and  monopolized  by 
the  few  wlio  possess  natural  or  accidental  advantages. 
If  the  trade  of  the  world  were  free,  as  it  could  be  made 
by  the  repeal  of  all  laws  and  regulations,  it  would  very 
speedily  he  usurped  by  a  few  countries,  and  monopolized 
in  a  large  degree  by  comparatively  few  in  those  coun¬ 
tries.  It  would  soon  be  found  that  trade,  instead  of 
being  under  the  regulation  of  public  law,  would  be  un¬ 
der  the  control  of  private  selfishness.  Trade  was  only 
made  general  when  it  became  the  object  of  restrictive 
legislation.  Before  the  reign  of  navigation  laws  and 
tariffs  the  trade  of  the  world  was  confined  to  one  or  two 
countries  at  a  time,  and  in  them  to  a  small  number  of 
merchant  princes  and  their  immediate  dependents. 
Free  trade  might  be  an  advantage  to  the  hundreds ;  to 
the  millions  it  would  prove  in  the  end  only  a  worse 
slavery.  Freedom  from  legal  restraints  does  not  always 
confer  freedom  of  action.  How  many  of  the  toiling 
millions  in  civilized  countries  could  have  their  choice 
of  a  career  in  life  if  all  legal  restraints  were  removed 
Can  those  who  hut  barely  obtain  enough  to  keep  up  the 
current  of  life  step  at  will  into  another  and  better  mode 
of  livelihood  1  Can  the  tenants  of  the  poorhouse  or  the 
factory  betake  themselves  at  will  to  the  pursuits  of  free 
trade  1  Surely  something  is  due  to  the  millions  who 
labor  beyond  the  advantages  which  free  trade  offers  of 
manufacturing  for  the  world  at  prices  they  have  no 
agency  in  fixing,  a  trade  in  which  they  can  never  par¬ 
ticipate,  a  liberty  of  doing  as  they  please  of  which  they 
are  not  in  a  condition  to  avail  themselves.  The  prob¬ 
lem  of  social  economy  is  not  so  simple  that  it  can  thus 


42 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


easily  be  disposed  of,  nor  should  its  proper  solution  be 
so  empty  a  favor  to  the  multitude  as  the  utmost  benefit 
which  free  trade  could  confer. 

The  right  of  doing  as  every  one  pleases,  which  is  in¬ 
cluded  in  free  trade,  is  not  then  a  sound  social  principle, 
because  it  is  a  right  which  can  inure  only  to  a  few  ;  it  is 
in  fact  the  principle  of  savage  rather  than  of  civilized 
life.  We  speak  of  it  as  an  elementary  principle;  for 
though  it  be  utterly  unsafe  to  develop  any  social  system 
from  such  a  principle,  it  may  he  indispensable  to  keep 
it  constantly  in  view,  whilst  development  proceeds  from 
those  elements  which  secure  justice  to  all  and  the  great¬ 
est  practical  happiness  to  the  masses.  Once  the  mind  of 
the  ingenuous  inquirer  is  upon  the  track,  it  requires 
very  little  examination  to  perceive  that  the  social  in¬ 
terests  of  the  laboring  masses  can  never  be  ascertained 
nor  pointed  out,  by  regarding  them  from  the  point  of 
Free  Trade  among  nations.  That  is  a  point  so  far 
from  the  true  starting-place  of  the  inquiry,  that  the 
very  question  to  be  settled  is  not  proposed  nor  indicated 
by  it.  Human  welfare  is  forgotten  by  those  who  become 
thoroughly  involved  in  questions  about  commerce,  and 
credit,  and  money,  and  the  more  especially  when  they 
believe  that  these  subjects  are  susceptible  of  scientific 
treatment,  without  reference  to  the  interests  of  men 
whom  alone  they  concern.  Precisely  a  similar  error  is 
committed  by  the  chief  writers  on  money  and  institu¬ 
tions  of  credit.  These  subjects  are  treated  too  inde¬ 
pendently,  and  with  too  little  reference  to  their  being 
mere  agents  of  commerce.  There  can  be  no  science  of 
money  or  currency  as  a  distinct  department  of  political 
economy,  because  the  employment  of  money  is  wholly 
involved  in  the  processes  of  trade,  which,  when  fully 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


43 


explained,  reveal  the  use  and  theory  of  money.  So 
neither  can  the  subjects  of  labor,  production,  trade, 
consumption,  distribution,  nor  capital,  &c.,  be  reduced 
into  the  form  of  science  or  expressed  in  the  way  of 
theory,  without  considering  them  all  in  connection  with 
and  in  subserviency  to  the  interests  of  the  human 
family.  Not  merely  the  interests  of  those  happy  few 
who  may  be  able  by  advantages  of  fortune,  or  of  person, 
or  of  talents,  or  of  position,  to  draw  to  themselves  the 
largest  portion  of  the  benefit,  but  the  interests  of  as 
many  as  it  is  possible  to  include  within  the  scope  of 
our  conclusions.  However  impracticable  it  may  be  to 
raise  the  multitudes  of  any  country  to  that  degree  of 
comfort  and  social  happiness  to  which  they  may  have 
an  equal  right,  but  which  they  are  not  fitted  to  assert, 
secure,  or  sustain,  we  are  by  no  means  excused  from 
yielding  them  all  the  social  good  they  are  capable  of 
receiving,  and  we  have  it  in  our  power  to  bestow.  In 
no  sense  is  it  permissible  to  regard  laborers  as  merely 
the  machinery  which  produces  the  commodities  of 
trade,  but  least  of  all,  in  an  elementary  and  theoretical 
sense,  because  by  so  doing,  we  do  the  laborer  vast  in¬ 
justice  without  being  aware  of  it.  We  cannot  regard 
laborers  merely  as  that  mass  of  labor  from  which  we 
are  to  obtain  the  largest  quantity  of  products  at  the 
least  possible  expense.  We  cannot,  we  must  not  for  a 
moment  forget  that  the  main  object  of  that  labor  is  to 
provide  the  highest  practicable  degree  of  well-being 
for  the  laborer  himself;  that  the  first  consideration  is 
the  man  who  labors,  next  the  product,  next  the  value 
of  the  product,  next  the  mode  of  exchanging  it  for 
what  the  laborer  wants,  and  then  of  markets,  mer¬ 
chants,  and  trade,  domestic  and  foreign.  We  do  not 


44 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


forget  in  this  that  the  employer  and  his  laborers  must, 
in  the  first  instance,  be  taken  as  one.  Their  interests 
must  he  consulted  first  together,  and  then  separately. 

It  is  broadly  laid  down  in  books,  received  as  author¬ 
ity  by  many  both  in  church  and  state,  and  taught  in 
our  colleges,  that  if  trade  were  made  free,  and  every 
man  allowed  unrestrained  liberty  in  his  commercial 
dealings,  everything  must  come  right  in  reference  to 
industry.  But  in  this  view,  industry  is  contemplated 
only  as  a  productive  power,  which  might  to  some 
extent  he  stimulated  by  free  trade.  It  is  not,  however, 
the  quantity  of  products  which  a  people  send  forth 
which  determines  their  welfare;  it  is  the  quantity  of 
products  which  they  consume,  and  the  whole  power  of 
industry  can  only  be  fully  realized  by  that  policy  which 
promotes  its  productiveness,  by  fully  rewarding  the 
producer.  Trade  may  flourish  whilst  those  who  fill  its 
channels  with  merchandise  are  starving.  Trade  often 
flourishes  most  when  it  pays  the  laborer  least,  and 
when  it  charges  the  consumer  the  highest  rates  which 
can  be  wrung  from  him.  Trade  prospers  by  purchasing 
at  prices  so  low  as  to  be  wholly  unremunerating  to  the 
producer,  and  in  sales  at  prices  so  high  as  to  rob  the 
consumer.  This  is  its  tendency,  and  there  is  no  busi¬ 
ness  in  life  in  which  selfishness  has  fairer  opportunities 
of  indulging  its  most  ravenous  propensities.  It  cannot 
be,  that  giving  a  free  rein  to  this  tendency  can  prove 
any  boon  to  those  who  toil  for  a  living.  We  protest, 
then,  earnestly  against  this  great  error  of  determining 
the  interests  of  the  men  of  industry  by  the  interests  of 
the  men  of  trade.  Nothing  can  be  more  certain  than 
that  the  welfare  of  the  masses  of  any  country  must  be 
determined  mainly  upon  elements  peculiar  to  the  coun- 


{ 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


45 


try  itself.  As  the  foreign  trade  of  any  country  is  of 
small  account  in  comparison  with  its  whole  industry, 
it  is  but  a  single  element  in  the  consideration  of  what 
is  due  to  domestic  labor ;  let  it  not  then  be  made  the 
exclusive  criterion.  The  idea  tliat  the  rates  of  com¬ 
pensation  for  labor  can  be  reduced  to  one  standard 
throughout  the  world,  implies  a  change  which  may  not 
be  effected  in  centuries,  and  is  at  this  day  an  absurdity 
too  great  to  be  contemplated  with  any  patience,  and  yet 
this  practically  is  one  of  the  tendencies,  if  not  the  aim 
of  free  trade.  If  a  nation  manufactures  ninety  per 
cent,  of  its  consumption,  the  prices  of  that  portion  of 
domestic  products  is,  by  this  system,  to  be  regulated 
by  the  ten  per  cent,  which  is  imported  from  those  coun¬ 
tries  where  the  purchase  could  be  made  cheapest,  and 
^vhere,  for  the  most  part,  the  compensation  of  the 
laborer  is  least.  Now  whatever  advantage  this  cheap 
purchase  may  be  to  the  few  who  consume  foreign  pro¬ 
ducts,  it  is  greatly  overborne  by  the  misery  entailed 
upon  domestic  producers,  by  compelling  them  to  reduce 
their  scale  of  living  to  that  of  the  ill-paid  foreign 
laborer.  Low  prices,  in  themselves,  are  no  boon  in  any 
country.  The  real  object  is  plenty  of  labor  and  a  fair 
exchange  of  products.*  If  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
can  purchase  hour  from  those  of  Pennsylvania,  at  a  rate 
so  low  as  to  leave  no  profit  to  those  who  produce  it, 
that  is  of  no  advantage  to  either  State,  for  the  people 
of  Pennsylvania  will  consume  so  much  less  of  the  manu¬ 
factures  of  Massachusetts.  What  is  for  the  real  ad¬ 
vantage  of  each  is,  that  the  laborers  in  each  should  ex¬ 
change  their  products  at  such  rates,  in  proportion  to 
their  cost  in  labor  and  skill,  as  will  enable  them  re¬ 
spectively  to  consume  the  largest  quantity  of  each 


« 


46  THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 

other’s  products.  The  question  must  still  be  asked, 
not  what  an  individual  laborer  has  produced,  or  what 
a  whole  people  has  produced,  but  what  has  the  man  or 
the  nation  enjoyed  1  The  largest  producers  may  be  and 
often  are,  under  the  practical  workings  of  this  system, 
the  greatest  sufferers. 

Purchasing  in  the  cheapest  market  and  selling  in  the 
dearest  are  undoubted  dogmas  of  free  trade ;  and  yet 
the  transaction  may  consist  in  purchasing  from  those 
whom  calamity  or  poverty  has  reduced  to  the  necessity 
of  parting  with  the  products  of  their  labor  upon  any 
ruinous  terms  the  purchaser  proposes,  and  selling  in 
the  dearest  market  may  consist  in  selling  at  enormously 
high  rates  to  those  who  are  compelled  to  submit  to  any 
demand  the  seller  may  make.  Such  transactions  are 
unobjectionable  in  the  light  of  the  received  political 
economy ;  they  are  a  legitimate  result  of  free  trade. 
They  may,  however,  be  of  such  a  moral  character  as  to 
surpass  larceny  or  robbery  in  evil  consequences.  It  not 
Unfrequently  happens  that  buyers  combine  on  a  large 
scale  to  reduce  those  who  sell  to  that  condition  which 
enables  them  to  dictate  the  terms  of  purchase ;  and 
sellers  in  like  manner  combine  to  reduce  buyers  to  this 
state  of  dependence.  These  purchasers  and  sellers  are, 
however,  in  the  great  transactions  of  trade  the  same 
persons.  In  all  this,  merchants  may  be  acting  only  in 
the  true  spirit  of  commerce ;  they  are  merely  buying  as 
cheap  as  they  can,  selling  as  dear  as  they  can,  and 
making  as  much  profit  as  they  can.  This  spirit  of  trade 
is  but  the  natural  dictate  of  selfishness  placed  in  posi¬ 
tions  in  which  it  can  prey  upon  the  industry  of  those 
who  are  unable  to  protect  themselves. 

If  'the  policy  of  a  country  is  such  that  its  laborers 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


47 


may  be  duly  rewarded  and  yet  they  are  not,  a  question 
must  arise  between  the  employer  and  employed,  and 
however  delicate  or  difficult  the  interference  might  be, 
it  cannot  fairly  be  denied  that  some  intervention  should 
take  place.  It  may  be  both  impracticable  and  impoli¬ 
tic  for  any  government  to  define  the  wages  of  labor ; 
but  it  should  not  shrink  from  whatever  scrutiny,  or 
whatever  measure  may  be  needful  to  save  the  laborer 
from  that  oppression  to  which  he  is  peculiarly  exposed, 
the  oppression  of  being  compelled  to  give  his  labor  for 
the  barest  subsistence,  while  the  products  of  that  labor 
yield  a  large  profit  to  the  employer.  It  is  this  kind  of 
oppression  which  reduces  millions  of  men  in  the  world 
to  a  condition  worse  than  slaverv,  because  it  exacts  far 
harder  work  and  gives  a  far  less  return.  It  is  worse 
than  the  bondage  of  the  slave  without  the  sympathy  or  at 
least  interested  care  of  a  master.  At  the  present  day 
there  is  no  example  of  a  civilized  community,  in  which, 
if  slavery  prevails,  the  master  is  not  punishable  for  ex¬ 
cessive  cruelty  to  his  slaves.  Now,  no  cruelty  to  slaves 
can  exceed  that  social  cruelty  which  starves  the  laborer 
and  reduces  him  to  the  abject  destitution  of  a  pauper. 
It  is  no  remedy  for  such  cases  that  free  laborers  may 
leave  when  they  are  unjustly  treated ;  that  is  a  remedy 
for  a  few,  but  not  within  the  power  of  multitudes. 
Those  who  have  families,  and  many  who  have  not, 
cannot  change  their  residence  without  expense,  for 
which  they  are  not  prepared,  and  without  great  risk  ; 
in  most  cases  they  cannot  change  at  all,  but  must  sub¬ 
mit  to  any  terms  imposed.  It  is,  therefore,  as  just,  as 
necessary,  as  expedient,  and  socially  as  politic,  to  inter¬ 
vene  between  the  employer  and  his  dependents  as  in 
any  case  of  justice  between  man  and  man.  It  is  so- 


48 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


cially  as  necessary,  as  proper,  to  protect  the  labor  of  the 
man  who  has  no  other  possession,  as  it  is  to  shield  the 
property  and  capital  of  employers.  As  to  the  mode  of 
intervention :  that  is  one  of  the  great  questions  which 
await  the  solution  of  the  wise  and  prudent,  but  it  is  a 
question  from  which  at  least  Christian  wisdom  and  love 
should  not  shrink,  because  Socialists,  Communists,  Uto- 
pists  or  enthusiasts,  have  by  their  false  speculations 
cast  discredit  upon  the  inquiry.  If  these  reformers 
have  wholly  failed  in  solving  the  great  problems  of 
labor,  it  does  not  follow  that  there  are  no  questions  to 
solve,  and  that  there  is  no  consideration  due  to  the 
subject.  And  if  these  mistaken  reformers  have  wholly 
failed,  if  they  have  misled  multitudes  not  capable  of 
detecting  the  fallacies  of  their  teachings,  it  does  not 
follow  that  nothing  is  due  to  them  and  their  deluded 
fgllowers  in  the  way  of  furnishing  them  a  better  philo¬ 
sophy,  safer  elements  for  reasoning,  and  sounder  con¬ 
clusions.  They  are  neither  lovers  of  truth  nor  safe 
guides  in  philosophy  who  refuse  to  enter  upon  a  diffi¬ 
cult  subject  because  errorists  have  attempted  it  before 
them.  Neither  are  those  safer  or  more  trustworthy 
who,  assuming  that  human  society  has  reached  its  high¬ 
est  point  of  perfection,  refuse  to  stir  in  the  path  of 
amelioration,  than  those  who  rush  onward  to  reforms 
which  peril  all  that  is  good  in  the  present  without 
giving  any  reasonable  assurance  of  what  is  better  in  the 
future. 

Indispensable  as  commerce  is  to  the  progress  and 
success  of  industry,  and  nobly  as  individual  merchants 
may  have  resisted  the  temptations  of  their  position  as 
intermediates  between  laborers  and  consumers,  and 
whatever  may  be  said  of  placing  such  power  unre- 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


49 


St  lie  ted  in  human  hands,  yet  surely  the  theory  of  this 
power  cannot  be  the  theory  of  industry  and  human 
welfare.  It  must  be  a  fatal  mistake,  a  grievous  fallacy 
to  exalt  the  theory  of  the  interests  of  merchants  into  a 
social  philosophy,  and  thus  make  all  other  interests 
subordinate  to  those  of  commerce.  The  object  of 
society  is  not  commerce ;  it  is  not  even  production. 
These  are  means  aud  not  ends.  It  would  be  as  wise  to 
found  the  whole  science  of  the  physician  on  a  know¬ 
ledge  of  the  drugs  he  employs,  without  any  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  human  system,  to  which  it  is  alone  applicable, 
as  to  construct  a  social  system  upon  the  processes  of 
trade  or  industry,  without  taking  into  account  their  ob- 
ject.  It  is  needful  not  only  to  ascertain  what  is  truth, 
but  to  place  our  truths  and  facts  in  their  proper  order, 
that  we  may  step  by  step  be  led  to  right  conclusions. 
If  our  inductions  be  logical  we  may  fall  into  as  great 
error  by  an  improper  arrangement  of  our  premises  or 
propositions  as  by  false  reasoning. 

It  has  not  been  intended  here  to  controvert  all  the 
dogmas  of  free  trade ;  we  deem  it  only  necessary  to 
resist  the  use  which  is  often  made  of  them.  -When 
they  are  spread  before  the  world  as  a  remedy  for  exist¬ 
ing  social  ills,  as  a  solution  of  the  main  problems  of 
social  economy,  we  merely  deny  at  present  their  appli¬ 
cation.  So  far  as  they  are  true  they  really  form  but 
one  step  in  the  adjustment  of  social  industry,  and  it 
would  be  equally  mischievous  to  assume  any  other  step 
in  that  progress  upon  which  to  construct  theories  of 
social  welfare.  It  might  as  well  be  pretended  that 
money  and  credit  were  the  starting-point  of  social  doc¬ 
trines  as  free  trade. 

The  object  of  the  foregoing  remarks  has  not  been  to 

4 


50 


THi  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 

present  methodically  and  fully  the  Claims  of  Labor, 
but  to  awaken  attention  to  their  importance ;  it  has  not 
been  to  ask  the  reader’s  acceptance  of  ready-made 
theories  or  opinions,  but  to  urge  an  earnest  and  con¬ 
scientious  study  of  a  subject  so  deeply  involving  the 
interests  of  society  and  humanity.  It  is  not  to  the  in¬ 
terests  of  any  department  of  industry  that  attention  is 
invited,  but  to  the  personal  claims  of  those  who  work 
for  their  own  living,  and  furnish  the  living  of  those 
who  do  not  labor, — of  that  large  class  which  consti¬ 
tutes  the  productive  power  of  a  nation.  However  im¬ 
perfectly  these  claims  have  been  presented,  some  such 
ideas  as  the  following  must  have  occurred  to  those 
readers  whose  reflections  have  been  in  the  least 
awakened. 

The  labor  to  be  performed  in  any  community  is  its 
most  important  public  interest ;  but  the  welfare  of  the 
individuals  who  achieve  that  labor  is  of  still  greater 
importance.  Life,  limb,  and  property,  are  such  special 
'objects  of  protection  by  law,  that  the  statute  books 
teem  with  enactments  having  this  design.  When  a 
life  is  lost  by  violence  or  accident,  a  special  officer  holds 
an  inquiry  to  ascertain  how,  where,  and  by  whom  the 
evil  has  been  done.  When  an  assault  on  the  person  is 
committed,  the  offence  is  visited  with  indictment,  fine, 
and  imprisonment.  When  the  right  of  property  is  vio¬ 
lated,  the  remedies  are  manifold  and  applicable  to  every 
variety  of  case.  The  poor  man’s  labor  being  equally 
as  important  to  society  and  himself,  should  be  equally 
protected  by  the  laws,  institutions,  and  usages  of  society. 
When  men  dependent  for  their  living  upon  their  labor  > 
can  find  no  work  though  anxiously  desiring  it,  their 
case  is  as  worthy  of  special  inquiry  as  any  for  which 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


51 


the  law  can  provide.  As  the  laws,  institutions,  and 
usages  of  society  now  stand,  men  must  sink  for  want 
of  work  to  the  condition  of  pauperism  before  their 
case  secures  official  notice.  Labor  as  a  right  and  a  pro¬ 
perty,  is  as  fully  entitled  to  proper  consideration  and 
constant  protection  as  houses,  lands,  and  merchandise, 
or  as  life  and  limb. 

The  difficulty  of  affording  this  protection  is  no  ex¬ 
cuse  for  not  attempting  it.  Governments  do  not  per¬ 
form  perfectly  any  of  their  functions.  If  the  public 
authorities  could  do  nothing  in  the  case  of  unemployed 
labor  and  suffering  laborers,  beyond  a  searching  inquiry 
into  the  causes,  this  would  in  due  time  indicate  the 
true  remedies.  Laborers  have  as  much  right  to  work 
as  to  eat ;  it  is  a  right  they  do  not  surrender  on  be¬ 
coming  members  of  society;  and  as  it  may  be  neither 
within  the  province  nor  the  power  of  Government  to 
secure  the  exercise  of  this  right  to  individuals,  it  should 
be  very  careful  neither  directly  nor  indirectly  to  ob¬ 
struct  it.  No  Government  can  employ  any  considera¬ 
ble  proportion  of  its  population,  but  every  Government 
can  be  careful  to  open  and  extend  the  avenues  of  in¬ 
dustry.  It  may  not  enter  upon,  but  it  can  both  point 
out  and  promote  the  career  of  labor !  And  when  that 
career  is  obstructed,  it  can  immediately  employ  all  the 
light  of  science  and  the  highest  social  intelligence  to 
ascertain  the  facts  and  suggest  the  cause  and  the 
remedies. 

Every  Government,  whatever  its  form,  should  by  its 
nature  be  paternal.  It  should  hold  its  powers  for  the 
good  of  those  over  whom  it  is  placed.  This  principle, 
whether  declared  in  constitutions  or  admitted  by  sove¬ 
reigns  or  not,  is  inevitably  inherent  in  the  Government 


5'2 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  LABOR. 


of  every  Christian  country,  for  these  men  owe  to  each 
other  without  exception,  the  duty  of  kindness.  Every 
constitution,  law,  or  institution,  is  framed  under  the 
obligation  of  this  law  of  kindness, — their  object  must 
be  the  public  welfare  and  the  well-being  of  individuals, 
and  they  should  be  construed  as  having  this  design. 
Where  all  the  authority  is  vested  in  one  person  this 
law  of  kindness  bears  upon  him  with  a  force  propor¬ 
tioned  to  his  power  of  doing  good.  If  this  principle 
governs,  whatever  be  the  form  of  Government,  the  at¬ 
tention  of  the  authorities  would  be  strongly  directed 
to  the  condition  of  the  laboring  masses,  for  the  most 
part  little  above  the  condition  of  poverty,  and  demand¬ 
ing  therefore,  not  only  on  public  grounds,  but  on  con¬ 
siderations  of  humanity,  the  utmost  vigilance  to  see 
that  nothing  intervened  to  interrupt  their  labor  or  im¬ 
pair  its  effectiveness.  Xext  to  the  preservation  of  the 
Government  itself  must  be  this  duty  of  seeing  that 
multitudes  who  live  by  their  labor  are  watdied  over 
and  protected  in  their  rights,  that  their  productive 
power  is  not  needlessly  wasted,  and  that  they  do  not 
come  to  poverty  or  even  temporary  inaction,  from  any 
fault  of  the  Government  either  of  omission  or  commis¬ 
sion. 

If  this  regard  for  the  interests  of  laborers  were  to 
obtain  its  proper  place  in  the  minds  of  public  men, 
men  of  science,  intelligence,  and  wealth,  rapid  progress 
would  be  made  in  ascertaining  the  extent  and  nature 
of  the  protection  which  is  due  to  the  cause  of  labor 
and  the  well-being  of  the  largest  class  of  persons  in 
every  nation. 


